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Print of people wading in shipyard with boats and buildings

A rowboat sits on a sloping dock that descends into a body of water. The area of dry land it sits on continues into the bottom right corner of the image. Behind the rowboat, three men in hats stand in thigh-deep water. They stand among taller boats docked at the shore. The boats in the yard are a mix of rowboats and small sailboats with folded sails. Behind the shipyard is a shore with wood and brick buildings, one with a sign reading “THAMES POLICE.” In the left background, taller sailboats continue back toward the horizon.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
G5713
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Thames Police
Other Titles
Series/Book Title: A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects
Alternate Title: Wapping Wharf
Classification
Prints
Work Type
print
Date
1859
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/280033

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Etching and drypoint printed in black ink on off-white modern laid paper
Technique
Etching and drypoint
Dimensions
plate: 15.2 × 22.9 cm (6 × 9 in.)
sheet: 17.5 × 25 cm (6 7/8 × 9 13/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: in plate: Whistler 1859
  • collector's mark: verso, lower left, graphite:
    E. H. G. [Edward Hale Greenleaf (Lugt 5207)]
  • inscription: in plate, lower right, etched.: Whistler. 1859.
  • watermark: DE ERVEN D.k BLAUW
  • collector's mark: verso, purple stamp with accession number written in graphite:
    GRAY COLLECTION, / 5713 / HARVARD COLLEGE. [within an oval borderline (Lugt 4836)]
  • inscription: on facade of building at the far right, etched: THAMES POLICE

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, Gray Collection of Engravings Fund
Object Number
G5713
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. 5.9 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