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Print of boats in shipyard with buildings

Two long, low boats float on smooth water in the foreground of this image. Behind them, more rowboats and sailboats are docked at a shore that arcs toward a vanishing point at background right. The shore is full of industrial buildings with exteriors of brick and wooden siding. Some of the buildings appear to be in disrepair, with sloping walls or broken windows. Signs on a foreground left building advertise manufacturing companies. In the distant background, a chimney blows a tall cloud of smoke into the sky.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
G5724
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Thames Warehouses
Other Titles
Series/Book Title: A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects, 1871
Classification
Prints
Work Type
print
Date
1859
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/280030

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Etching and drypoint printed in black ink on off-white laid paper
Technique
Etching and drypoint
Dimensions
plate: 7.7 × 20.3 cm (3 1/16 × 8 in.)
sheet: 10 × 22.6 cm (3 15/16 × 8 7/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: butterfly insignia and in plate, lower right: Whistler 1859
  • watermark: [large swirly floral shapes around a bell-like shape filled with a brick pattern]
  • inscription: etched, lower right corner: Whistler 1859
  • collector's mark: verso, lower left, graphite: .
    E. H. G. [Edward Hale Greenleaf (Lugt 5207)]
  • collector's mark: verso, purple stamp with accession number written within in brown ink:
    GRAY COLLECTION, / 5724 / HARVARD COLLEGE. [within an oval borderline (Lugt 4836)]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
H. Wunderlich and Co., Sold to Fogg Art Museum, 1896.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

State
Glasgow v/v
Standard Reference Number
Kennedy 38; Glasgow 46

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gray Collection of Engravings Fund
Object Number
G5724
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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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. 5.3 on p. 136 [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