Old Battersea Bridge

1879·Etching and drypoint with foul biting in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper·Plate: 20.3 × 29.6 cm (8 × 11 11/16 in.); Sheet: 25.7 × 40.6 cm (10 1/8 × 16 in.)

<p>This print reflects James McNeill Whistler's preservationist instincts along with his interest in picturesque London architecture. Battersea Bridge, within eyesight of Whistler's home in Chelsea and the subject of many of his most celebrated works, was closed to traffic in 1883 and eventually demolished in 1890. By depicting boats and pedestrians freely moving through a wood bridge that is abruptly cut off at the edges, Whistler infused the object with an elegance akin to that found in the works of Utagawa Hiroshige. As early as 1863, Whistler was an avid collector of Japanese objects, and he soon became the most prominent ambassador of japonisme between England and France.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1879
Medium: Etching and drypoint with foul biting in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: Plate: 20.3 × 29.6 cm (8 × 11 11/16 in.); Sheet: 25.7 × 40.6 cm (10 1/8 × 16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: James McNeill Whistler

Artist

James McNeill Whistler

Painting

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake".

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

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