Longshore men
date: label: Date
content: 1859
name: label: Artist
content: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
notes: label: Label
content: In Whistler's day, genteel people who could afford to purchase etchings generally avoided unnecessary trips to working-class sections of cities. For such people, Whistler's etchings of the Thames riverfront provided unusually intimate glimpses of what a contemporary critic described as "that class of hard-fisted, square-shouldered, solid-faced men, on whom the odour of tar and tobacco is equally important."
label: Label
content: Quotation from the Reader, April 4, 1863, in Whistler press-cutting book 1:37, Birnie Philip Collection, Glasgow University Library.
label: Label
content: Whistler etchings are identified by "K" numbers as assigned in Edward Kennedy's catalogue, The Etched Work of Whistler, (New York: Grolier Club, 1910; and subsequent editions). This print is K45; first and only state.
label: Label
content: Whistler etchings are identified by "G" numbers as assigned in "James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné," by Margaret F. McDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock (University of Glasgow, 2012), http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk. This print is G52 state 3 of 4.
label: Provenance
content: James Anderson Rose (1819-1890), London [1]
label: Provenance
content: Sir William Drake (1817-1890), London [2]
label: Provenance
content: To 1890
label: Provenance
content: H. Wunderlich & Co., New York to 1890 [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 1890 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1890 [4]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [5]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] "From collections of J. Anderson Rose and Sir William Drake" (see Curatorial Remark 2, Freer Folder Sheet notes 1 and 4, in the object record).
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] See Original Whistler List, Etchings, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [4] See note 3.
label: Provenance
content: [5] 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: Exhibition History
content: Whistler and the Thames (December 17, 2000 to June 17, 2001)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: James Anderson Rose (1819-1890)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Sir William Drake (1817-1890)
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: etching (printing process)
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: F1890.5
objectType: label: Type
content: Print
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Etching; ink on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 15.3 x 22.5 cm (6 x 8 7/8 in)