Millbank

1861

Not on view

Sharply receding mooring posts and a high embankment at right direct our eye toward distant warehouses and a church in Lambeth, on the south bank of the Thames. This effect, together with the cropped form of a massive barge at lower left, and spatial leaps in the foreground, echo devices found in Japanese woodblock prints. Whistler selected this image to advertise an 1861 exhibition of his etchings held by the print dealer Edmund Thomas at 39 Old Bond Street. A decade later, Ellis & Green published it in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects (the "Thames Set").

Artwork Details

Title: Millbank
Series/Portfolio: Thames Set ("A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects" 1871)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London)
Date: 1861
Medium: Etching and drypoint, printed in black ink on ivory laid Japan; fifth state of five
Dimensions: Plate: 3 7/8 × 4 15/16 in. (9.8 × 12.6 cm)
Sheet: 6 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (16.5 x 18.4 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Object Number: 17.3.55
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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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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