Signed and dated on plate.
Literature: Kennedy, No.39;
Glasgow 47 II/IV.
Provenance: Christie's Sale, Old Master & Modern Prints, 19 September 2007, lot 205.
As soon as Whistler moved to London in 1859, he settled in a room in Wapping, East London, on the River Thames, and started a series of etchings known as the Thames Set. The present impression, which forms part of this series, represents the Old Westminster Bridge on the River Thames, with the Houses of Parliament and the tower of Big Ben on the left. The view was drawn on the copper plate on site and is as usual reversed in the print. The Old Westminster Bridge was built in the mid-18th century under the supervision of the Swiss engineer Charles Labelye and remained in place until the 1850s, during which Whistler could admire its 15 elegant arches. Soon after, however, it had to be replaced due to structural problems. The present bridge was designed by Thomas Page and inaugurated in 1862.
The subject was first exhibited with the Thames Sets at the shop of Edmund Thomas in London in 1861. The following year, it was shown with the Société National des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the International Exhibition in London, followed by the Royal Academy in 1863. It was published in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes of the Thames by Ellis & Green in 1871.
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