Description:

James Whistler (American, 1834-1903), Billingsgate, Etching, 1859, signed and dated in plate lower edge, depicting Billingsgate fish market on the Thames, with London Bridge and the tower of Southwark Cathedral visible in the background, from the vantage point of the Custom House stairs, matted and framed with Swan auction label on verso. Frame size: 16 in. x 19 in.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was a seminal American artist known for his paintings and etchings. He painted in a style which emphasized layers of wet paint, gradually building tonal contrasts much like his contemporary Edouard Manet. Born 1834 in Lowell, MA, he and his family moved to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1842 for his father's job as a railway engineer. Whistler studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts at only 11 years old, returning to the United States with his mother after his father's death in 1849. He briefly attended the United State Military Academy at West Point before being dismissed for disobedience and poor grades. Arriving in Paris in 1855, with little money and few prospects, he fell into the milieu of Henri Fantin-Latour, Gustave Courbet, and Charles Baudelaire. The artist infamously sued the British art critic John Ruskin in 1877, who scathingly attacked Whistler's painting Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (c. 1875) in a review. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London, among others. (artnet.com)

Measurements: Height: of plate 5 7/8 in. x Width: 8 3/4 in.

Condition:

Good condition, very minor toning to paper, a few faint foxing marks, not viewed out of frame.

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