Print of a busy dock scene with a group of men standing by the ramp and a small rowboat.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

This print shows a busy scene of ships docked in a harbor, with a dense grouping of brick and wood buildings beyond. One on the right has a sign that reads "Thames Police." Most of the ships are docked, but there is one with furled sails on the water. Workers stand on various docked boats. By the ramp in the bottom right of the image, three men stand between the base of a docked boat and a small rowboat. They are all in suits and hats, but the man on the right has a top hat.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
M12119
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Thames Police
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Wapping Wharf
Series/Book Title: A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects
Classification
Prints
Work Type
print
Date
1859
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/262480

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Etching and drypoint printed in black ink on off-white Japanese paper
Technique
Etching and drypoint
Dimensions
plate: 15.2 × 22.4 cm (6 × 8 13/16 in.)
sheet: 18.6 × 24.5 cm (7 5/16 × 9 5/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: in plate: Whistler 1859
  • inscription: verso, lower left, graphite: a45982
  • inscription: in plate, lower right, etched: Whistler. 1859.
  • collector's mark: verso, brown stamp with accession number written in graphite:
    THE WILLIAM HAYES FOGG / ART MUSEUM OF / HARVARD UNIVERSITY / 12,119 [Lugt 936]
  • inscription: on building facade at far right, etched: THAMES POLICE

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Edwin de T. Bechtel, (347a), Collector, Gift to Fogg Art Museum, 1947.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

State
Glasgow v/v
Standard Reference Number
Kennedy 44, Glasgow 53

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Edwin de T. Bechtel
Accession Year
1947
Object Number
M12119
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Emma Chambers, An Indolent and Blundering Art?: The Etching Revival and the Redefinition of Etching in England, 1838-1892, Ashgate Publishing (Aldershot, England, 1999), repr. as fig. 5.9 on p. 144 [not Harvard impression; related bibliography]

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu