The 'Adam and Eve', Old Chelsea

Object Details

• Artist

  James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

• Edition/State

  2, 1

• Label

  The Adam and Eve was a local riverside pub in London, demolished to make way for the Chelsea Embankment, which opened in May 1874. Four years after the picturesque building was destroyed, Whistler looked backward, relying chiefly on photographs to reconstruct a detailed and commercially appealing image complete with a tiny mud lark, a scavenger searching for salable junk on the river bottom at low tide.

  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 G182 state 3 of 3.

• Provenance

  To 1893

  Frederick Keppel and Co., London, England, and New York to 1893 [1]

  From 1893 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Frederick Keppel and Co. in 1893 [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)

  An American in London: Whistler and the Thames (May 3 to August 17, 2014)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Frederick Keppel and Co. (1868-1940) (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

  1870s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Frederick Keppel and Co.

• Place

  United States

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Prints