Early Morning, Battersea (Battersea Dawn) (Cadogan Pier)

probably 1863

Not on view

Whistler here responds to the calm of the Thames at dawn, placing a beached rowboat across the foreground , and small sailboats clustered around a wooden dock at center. Beyond is a wooden ferry terminal on Cadogan Pier and Battersea Bridge extending across the river. Drypoint was combined with etching to create soft effects evocative of misty water under an overcast sky. The was like finished in 1863, and published in 1871 in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects (the "Thames Set").

Artwork Details

Title: Early Morning, Battersea (Battersea Dawn) (Cadogan Pier)
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: probably 1863
Medium: Etching and drypoint, printed in black ink on cream laid Japan; second state of two (Glasgow)
Dimensions: Plate: 4 1/2 × 5 15/16 in. (11.4 × 15.1 cm)
Sheet: 6 7/8 x 8 7/8 in. (17.5 x 22.5 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Object Number: 17.3.58
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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