The Barrow- Quartier des Marolles, Brussels

Object Details

• Artist

  James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

• 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)

• Origin

  United States

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1880s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, H. Wunderlich & Co.

• Place

  United States

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, American Art, Store front, Cities and towns, Etching (printing process)

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Prints