London Bridge
date: label: Date
content: 1881
name: label: Artist
content: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
notes: label: Description
content: A view of the bridge, with river craft near it; masts beyond and to the left; unsigned.
label: Signatures
content: Unsigned.
label: Paper/Support
content: On rough, wove paper mounted around the edges to the verso of a blue paper-faced, 3- or 4-ply board.
label: Label
content: Whistler's decision to paint London Bridge in a glowing gray and gold palette recalls the expressive images of bridges on the Thames by J.M.W. Turner. Turner's impact upon Whistler remains an issue still ripe for exploration. Whistler had copied Turner's work by 1855, and he probably viewed the exhibition of Turner's paintings at the National Gallery in London in 1857. However, standard biographies tell us that Whistler "reviled" Turner. Whistler complained that "neither Turner nor Ruskin had the brains to carry on tradition." Turner's art was championed by the art critic John Ruskin, who later became Whistler's adversary in the famous libel suit. This connection may well have something to do with the negative verbiage on Turner that Whistler left behind. However, some of Turner's titles, like Shade and Darkness or Light and Color seem to presage Whistler's aesthetic concerns and watercolors like London Bridge offer visual evidence that Whistler did not revile Turner completely.
label: Provenance
content: To 1905
label: Provenance
content: Thomas Way Sr. (1827-1915), London, or Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), London, to 1905 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1905 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Thomas Way Sr. or Thomas Robert Way in 1905 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Whistler List, Paintings, pg. 20A, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Thomas Way Sr. and his son, Thomas Robert Way, were lithographers who worked closely with Whistler on several of his projects. They helped with the printing of his etchings, as well as the printing of Whistler’s promotional materials. Both Thomas Way Sr. and Thomas Robert Way owned many Whistler works. Thomas Way Sr. acquired several of these works at the time of Whistler’s bankruptcy, and he passed some of them on to his son (see The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, 1855-1903, ed. Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort and Nigel Thorp, On-line Edition, People, biographies of Thomas Way and Thomas Robert Way; http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence).
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer acquired many Whistler pieces from the Ways. However, museum records do not always specify whether it was the younger or elder Way who was the source of a particular object. Further, archival sources indicate that the junior Way sometimes acted on behalf of his father: whilst negotiating the sale of his own Whistler works to C.L. Freer, he would concurrently negotiate the sale of some of his father’s Whistler works to Freer. In cases where it is unclear whether it was the junior or senior Way who actually owned a piece acquired by C.L. Freer, the provenance record will simply state that the object was purchased from “Thomas Way Sr. or Thomas Robert Way.”
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] 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 in Watercolor (May 18 to November 3, 2019)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler—Landscapes and Seascapes (October 14, 1969 to September 25, 1971)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Works of Whistler (September 22, 1947 to April 11, 1955)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Whistler Watercolors, Oil Paintings, and Pastels (January 20, 1944 to October 13, 1947)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler Pastels and Drawings, Re-arranged and some additions (January 7, 1924 to January 20, 1944)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler Water Colors (January 7, 1924 to April 4, 1930)
label: Exhibition History
content: American Paintings, Pastels, and Water Colors, and Drawings. J.A.McN. Whistler (May 2, 1923 to January 7, 1924)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: United States
topic: label: Topic
content: mounting
label: Topic
content: yellow pigment
label: Topic
content: bone black
label: Topic
content: cobalt blue
label: Topic
content: Prussian blue
label: Topic
content: burnt sienna
label: Topic
content: raw sienna
label: Topic
content: burnt umber
label: Topic
content: iron oxide red
label: Topic
content: vermilion
label: Topic
content: zinc white
label: Topic
content: Mars pigment
label: Topic
content: yellow ocher
label: Topic
content: underdrawing
label: Topic
content: water
label: Topic
content: river
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: Related Online Resources
content: Whistler in Watercolor
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: F1905.115a-b
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Watercolor over graphite on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 17.5 x 27.8 cm (6 7/8 x 10 15/16 in)