Liverdun

1858

Not on view

Whistler visited Liverdun, a town on the Moselle, near the start of a summer Rhineland tour in 1858. He traveled by train between Nancy and Strasbourg, making sketches and a few etchings, including the present work. Here, old farm buildings frame a yard and establish what would become a favorite formal arrangement. Roofs and walls are punctuated with shadowed openings to create a play of lights and darks enlivened with the lightly etched forms of farm workers, ladders and a cart. A white cow walks out of the space at right, and broad expanses below and above suggest ground and sky. This composition was one included in "Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" (known as the "French Set"), the artist's first published work, issued in November 1858.

Artwork Details

Title: Liverdun
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; third state of three (Glasgow); printed in black ink on fine antique gray laid paper
Dimensions: Plate: 4 3/16 × 6 in. (10.7 × 15.3 cm)
Sheet: 5 7/8 × 8 13/16 in. (14.9 × 22.4 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Bequest of Julia H. Manges, in memory of her husband, Dr. Morris Manges, 1960
Object Number: 60.598.29
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
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