Drury Lane

[1880–81]

Not on view

When Whistler returned to London from Venice, he explored the narrow streets around Covent Garden and created this image of a picturesque corner shop glimpsed through a dark passageway, with foreground street enlivened by children. Drury Lane at this time was a poor area filled with tumbledown buildings and also the center of the city's theater district.The subtle spatial layering recalls effects developed by the artist in Italy and this print was included in A Set of Twenty-Six Etchings (known as the "Second Venice Set"), published by Dowdeswell and Thbaudeau in 1886.

Artwork Details

Title: Drury Lane
Series/Portfolio: Second Venice Set ("A Set of Twenty-Six Etchings by James A. McN. Whistler," 1886)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London)
Date: [1880–81]
Medium: Etching, printed in brownish-black ink on cream laid paper; only state (Glasgow)
Dimensions: Plate: 6 7/16 × 4 1/8 in. (16.3 × 10.4 cm)
Sheet: 6 7/16 × 4 1/8 in. (16.3 × 10.4 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Object Number: 17.3.124
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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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)
James McNeill Whistler
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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
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