A Bridge
date: label: Date
content: 1858
name: label: Artist
content: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
notes: label: Label
content: A Bridge follows the canons of eighteenth-century picturesque landscape imagery. The drawing has an academic quality which sets it apart from other sketches executed during Whistler's Rhineland tour, and the actual site has thus far eluded identification. The scene recalls a heavy stone bridge at Mayence, and similar bridges at Bingen and Coblentz were painted by Turner earlier in the century. Whistler could also have created a composite or imagined scene. Whistler drew with a soft lead, and then sharpened details with a harder pencil, while smudging in shadows with his finger. What is most interesting about the drawing is Whistler's consistency of vision. Although he soon abandoned such academic designs, he remained interested in river banks glimpsed through the arches of a bridge. Later etchings, like London Bridge, (F1898.358) as well as drawings and watercolors are based on such a composition.
label: Provenance
content: Seymour Haden (1818-1910), London [1]
label: Provenance
content: To 1898
label: Provenance
content: H. Wunderlich & Co., New York to 1898 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1898 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from H. Wunderlich & Co., through Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938), in November 1898 [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Whistler List, Haden Collection Drawings, pg. 2, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See Voucher No. 20, November 1898, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [3] See note 2.
label: Provenance
content: [4] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: H. Wunderlich & Co. (1874-1912) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: United States
topic: label: Topic
content: landscape
label: Topic
content: bridge
label: Topic
content: United States
label: Topic
content: American Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1898.176
objectType: label: Type
content: Drawing
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Pencil on off-white wove paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 20.8 x 32.3 cm (8 3/16 x 12 11/16 in)