The Unsafe Tenement (The Old Farm)

[1858] later printing

Not on view

Whistler found this dilapidated building during a summer tour of Alsace-Lorraine and the Rhineland. He carried sketchbooks, etching needles and copper plates, etching about six plates between mid-August and October. Such restraint suggests many preparatory sketches and careful planning before needle touched copper. Crumbling architecture is here given an unidealized individuality in a way that echoes how realist painters approached the human figure. In November 1858, Whistler included the print in his first published set, "Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" ("Twelve Etchings from Nature"), known as the "French Set."This fourth state is a later printing with Delâtre's name removed from the plate.

Artwork Details

Title: The Unsafe Tenement (The Old Farm)
Series/Portfolio: French Set ("Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" 1858)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London)
Date: [1858] later printing
Medium: Etching; fourth state of four (Glasgow); Printed in black ink on on modern medium weight dark cream laid paper
Dimensions: Plate: 6 3/16 × 8 3/4 in. (15.7 × 22.3 cm)
Sheet: 8 1/8 × 13 1/16 in. (20.7 × 33.2 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Gift of David Keppel, 1917
Object Number: 17.21.74
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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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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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
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