La Marchande de moutarde
James McNeill Whistler American
Not on view
After visiting Cologne during a summer–fall tour in 1858, Whistler created this image of an elderly mustard vendor who arranges jars within a dim interior, as a young assistant leans against the door jamb. He here establishes a formula to which he would often return—using an open entrance to frame a receding interior containing figures and objects that refer to a particular activity and locale. One of the most complex prints in "Douze eaux-fortes d’après nature" (Twelve Etchings from Nature), Whistler based the composition on drawings and sent an impression to the Paris Salon of 1859. This example belonged to Thomas Winans, a Baltimore friend who financed the artist's move to Paris in 1855; Winans kept the print in an album that descendants gave to the Museum.
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