La Marchande de moutarde
After visiting Cologne during a summer–fall tour in 1858, Whistler created this image of an elderly mustard vendor who arranges jars within a dim interior, as a young assistant leans against the door jamb. He here establishes a formula to which he would often return—using an open entrance to frame a receding interior containing figures and objects that refer to a particular activity and locale. One of the most complex prints in Douze eaux-fortes d’après nature (Twelve Etchings from Nature), Whistler based the composition on drawings and sent it to the Paris Salon of 1859.
Artwork Details
- Title: La Marchande de moutarde
- Series/Portfolio: French Set ("Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" 1858)
- Artist: James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London)
- Date: 1858
- Medium: Etching, printed in black ink on gray chine on white wove paper (chine collé); third state of five (Glasgow)
- Dimensions: plate: 6 3/16 x 3 1/2 in. (15.7 x 8.9 cm)
sheet: 17 x 11 15/16 in. (43.2 x 30.3 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
- Object Number: 17.3.16
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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