La Marchande de moutarde

1858

Not on view

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

More Artwork

By James McNeill Whistler

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The artist's butterfly in an enlarged version with a forked tail

James McNeill Whistler

19th century

Reading, James McNeill Whistler American, Lithograph with scraping; printed in black ink on grayish chine mounted on ivory wove paper; fourth state of four (Chicago) — Reading
James McNeill Whistler
1879

Windsor (Memorial), James McNeill Whistler American, Drypoint; third state of four (Glasgow); printed in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper — Windsor (Memorial)
James McNeill Whistler
1887

Early Morning, James McNeill Whistler American, Lithotint with scraping, on a prepared half-tint ground, printed in black ink on cream wove paper; third state of four (Chicago) — Early Morning
James McNeill Whistler
1878

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