James McNeill Whistler
Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Title: Rotherhithe
Year Produced: 1860
Medium: Etching
Dimensions: 10-7/8"h x 7-7/8"w
Location: Print Study
Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Read Mullan
About the Artist
During the mid-to-late nineteenth century, there was a resurgence of interest in the art of etching and a movement to elevate the medium to the same artistic stature as painting and sculpture. This movement became known as the Nineteenth Century Etching Revival.
Until the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century, etching and engraving had been used primarily for commercial reproduction. With the development of lithography in 1798 and of photography in about 1839 as reproductive methods, artists began to advance etching as a means of independent personal artistic expression. The artists took a sometimes romantic but also realistic look at their environment: the people, the restful rural landscapes; and the vibrant, growing cities. They experimented with the etching process and captured a quality of line, tone and space unachievable in any other print medium. Rotherhithe, 1860 (etching and drypoint; iii/iii: Kennedy66; Mansfield 66; Lochnan 70;) by James Abbott McNeill Whistler exemplifies this approach with the sketchy, delicate line work in the face and hands of the figures, the aggressive black tones in the ship and the visual depth of the waterway.
As a child, Whistler lived with his family in Russia and later in London with his sister and her husband Francis Seymour Haden who introduced Whistler to prints and printmaking techniques. After the death of his father in 1849, Whistler and his family returned to America, settling in Connecticut. In 1854, Whistler accepted a position with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for which he etched maps and topographic plans. A year later he left the Survey and set up a studio in Washington and travelled to Paris where he attended the Ecole Imperiale et Speciale de Dessin and later studied in the atelier of Charles-Gabriel Gleyre (1806-1874). During the 1860's, he started to use motifs associated with Japanese prints, influenced partially by the work of Hiroshige, and incorporated a butterfly for his signature in typical Japonisme style. An early butterfly can be found below the bottom edge of Rotherhithe which was one etching from a series of prints of "Scenes on the Thames," also called the "Thames Set". Whistler produced several other series of prints including the "French Set," the "Venice Set," and the "Nocturnes." This last series, done in the 1870s were severely criticized by John Ruskin causing a great set back in Whistler's financial and professional career. But he continued to produce prints even after his health began to fail in 1897. By the time of his death in 1903 of a heart attack, he had produced over 450 prints.
Whistler's work was highly visible as it was shown in exhibitions and galleries in Europe and America. He was a major influence on a later generation of etchers including Joseph Pennell, David Cameron and Edmund Blampied.
For Further Reading:
Kennedy, Edward G. The Etched Work of Whistler, 5 vols. New York:The
Grolier Club, 1910.
Lochnan, Katharine A. The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler. New Haven
and London: Published in association with the Art Gallery of Ontario by Yale
University Press, 1984.
Lochnan, Katharine A. Whistler's Etchings and the Sources of His Etching
Style 1855-1880. New York and London; Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988.
[top]
ASU | Herberger College | ASU Art Museum | Internal Resources | Staff Directory
