"Billingsgate"

etching

PRINTS - ETCHINGS
Whistler, James Abbott McNeill
England, London
1859
paper; wood
overall: 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.

Original etching titled “Billingsgate” by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Signed “Whistler. 1859.” along the lower left plate. Etching depicts the Billingsgate dock and waterfront along the Thames in London, England. Beneath etching plate, in pencil "11468". Seller plate removed from frame backing and placed in correspondence files; reads: “11468 / From Frederick Keppel & Co., Inc. / Rare Engravings and Etchings, / No. 4 East 39th Street, New York. / REMOVED TO 16 B. 57th ST / Billingsgate / Original etching by / Whistler”. Backplate reads: “BILLINGSGATE / ORIGINAL ETCHING BY JAMES A. McNEILL WHISTLER / (Wedmore Catalog No. 45) / “The soliditiy of the buildings introduced into this plate - the clock tower and the houses upon the quay - is a rare achievement in etching… The strength of their realization lends delicacy to the thin-masted fishing boats with their yet thinner lines of cordage, and to the distant bridge and the gray mist of London and to the faint clouds of the sky.” / Frederick Wedmore, Four Masters of Etching, pp. 37-38. / “Hamerton has described, and more or less appreciated this plate, in ‘Etching and Etchers’ and the ‘Portfolio.’ The Dutch fishing boats are still moored in the same way on the spot.” / J.P.”. Excellent condition. Overall: 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.

2022.44