Richly ornamented panels surround a central void and invite us into the shadowed interior of the Palazzo Gussoni, with a sunlit courtyard glimpsed beyond. This etching belongs to Whistler’s "First Venice Set," and the artist found his subject on the Rio de la Fava canal, east of the Rialto. The dark interior space seems dappled with reflected light shining through a grid that fills the central arch. Close inspection, however, reveals the shapes to be chairs hanging from the ceiling. Whistler undoubtedly planned this coincidence of patterning and avoided clarifying the details. His interest in shifting light led him to devote one-third of the sheet to the foreground canal, where subtly manipulated plate tone contrasts suggested depth with reflected surface.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Doorway
Series/Portfolio:First Venice Set ("Venice: Twelve Etchings," 1880)
Howard Mansfield A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etchings and Drypoints of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Caxton Club, 1909, cat. no. 185.
Edward Guthrie Kennedy, Royal Cortissoz The Etched Work of Whistler: illustrated by reproductions in collotype of the different states of the plates. The Grolier Club, 1910, cat. no. 188 vi/vii.
Katharine A. Lochnan The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler. Ex. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, September 14–November 11, 1984; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, November 24, 1984–January 13, 1985. Yale University Press, Art Gallery of Ontario, New Haven, 1984, cat. no. 205, pp. 182, 214, 266.
Alastair Grieve Whistler's Venice. New Haven and London, 2000, fig. no. 104, pp. 92, 94, 97, 189.
Margaret F. MacDonald Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice. Aldershot and California, 2001, pp. 64, 70, 76, 77, 84, 88, 94-5, 101, 115, 129-32, pl. 90, 133.
Gordon Cooke James McNeill Whistler, The Embroidered Curtain. Exh. cat. The Fine Art Society, London, London, 2007, cat. no. 24.
Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Joanna Meacock James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow on-line website at http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk. University of Glasgow, 2012, cat. no. 193 xiv/xx.
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The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.