The Fish Shop, Busy Chelsea (Fish Shop, Chelsea)

1886–87
Not on view
After returning to London from Venice, Whistler made a number of prints devoted to the shop fronts of small vendors operating in old buildings. Here, the windows, awnings, and piled counters of Elizabeth Maunder’s fish shop on Cheyne Walk, near the artist’s Chelsea residence, are used to develop an abstracted pattern of lights and darks. Supported by the architecture, the horizontal arrangement is punctuated by pedestrians and shop assistants, some standing within shadowed doorways, others on the brightly lit sidewalk.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Fish Shop, Busy Chelsea (Fish Shop, Chelsea)
  • Artist: James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London)
  • Date: 1886–87
  • Medium: Etching; second state of two (Glasgow)
  • Dimensions: 5 3/8 x 8 7/16 in. (13.7 x 21.5 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Phyllis Massar, 2011
  • Object Number: 2012.136.961
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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