On View
Not on viewObject number2005.21
Rotherhithe
Artist
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
(American, 1834-1903)
Date1860
Mediumetching and drypoint
Dimensionsimage: 10 3/4 × 7 3/4 in. (27.3 × 19.7 cm)
sheet: 14 1/2 × 9 1/4 in. (36.8 × 23.5 cm)
mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
sheet: 14 1/2 × 9 1/4 in. (36.8 × 23.5 cm)
mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LinePermanent Collection Fund
Exhibition History"Masterworks on Paper," KIA Long Gallery (Sept. 2005 - Jan. 2006).
"Highlights of the KIA Permanent Collection, (purchased with Auction funds)," KIA Gallery 5 (Sept. 9 - Oct. 14, 2006).
"Warhol, Chihuly and Others: Showcasing New KIA Acquisitions," KIA (Dec. 8, 2007 - Jan. 27, 2008).
"Curator's Choice: European Works on Paper," KIA Long Gallery (May 9 - Aug. 27, 2008).
"Shimmerings of Light, Mysteries of Shadow: The Etching Revival of the 19th Century," KIA Long Gallery (Sept. 24 - Nov. 27, 2011).
"Lasting Legacy: A Collection for Kalamazoo," Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sep. 6, 2014 - Jan. 4, 2015).Label TextIn the spring of 1859, Whistler relocated from Paris to London. Thoroughly entrenched in the Realist aesthetic that embraced depiction of the realities of lower-class life, he soon found inspiration in the working-class activities along the lower reaches of the Thames River, producing a group of sixteen prints of the area. Sketching among the old wooden slips and docks, Whistler sought to capture the attitudes and appearance of the stevedores, sailors, and merchants of this district.
Like many of Whistler’s other works, Rotherhithe may have been influenced by the swift and voluminous influx of Japanese objects and media that flooded Western Europe and the United States after the forced reopening of Japan to foreign trade in the mid-1850s. Whistler incorporated Japanese gowns and screens into some of his paintings, but more frequently was influenced by Japanese woodcuts’ unfamiliar compositional strategies. As it captures a slice of a bar scene, Rotherhithe also presages the focus on the emerging social realities of modern urban society that would become a characteristic element of Impressionist painting over the following several decades.
This print shows two men conversing on the balcony of The Angel public house in the Rotherhithe district of London, overlooking the Thames. A center for ship repair and commercial warehousing of luxury goods in the 19th century, this bend in the river already had a long history, dating back to the launching of the Mayflower from Rotherhithe docks in 1620. The Angel pub still stands today, now within a modern residential district.
