The Barrow- Quartier des Marolles, Brussels

Object Details

Label

Whether by design or by accident, Whistler’s small, stage-like, close-cropped images echo urban photographs by John Thomson, a documentarian of lower- and working-class London neighborhoods. The Barrow recalls Thomson’s Cheap Fish of St. Giles from the book Street Life in London. The book included articles juxtaposed with photographs “taken from life,” meant to provide “unquestionable accuracy” of the urban poor’s marginal existence. Yet, like Whistler’s images, these photographs were carefully staged.

Whistler etchings are identified by "G" numbers as assigned in "James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonn&‌eacute;," by Margaret F. McDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock (University of Glasgow, 2012), http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk. This print is G346 state 7 of 8.

Provenance

To 1888

H. Wunderlich & Co., New York to 1888 [1]

From 1888 to 1919

Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1888 [2]

From 1920

Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Whistler List, Etchings, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Collection

Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Exhibition History

Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change (November 18, 2023 to May 4, 2024)

Previous custodian or owner

H. Wunderlich & Co. (1874-1912) (C.L. Freer source)

Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

Data Source

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Artist

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

Date

1887

Credit Line

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Medium

Etching; ink on paper

Dimensions

H x W (overall): 12.5 x 17.5 cm (4 15/16 x 6 7/8 in)

Type

Print