St. James Street (Primary Title)
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American, 1834 - 1903 (Artist)
In the 1870s, Whistler emerged as the leader of an etching revival in Europe and his native America. He mastered the printmaking process, including the careful manipulation of each print by wiping areas of ink on the plate’s surface between impressions. This view of a fashionable London street was published in Vanity Fair in 1878. By that time, Whistler was signing his paintings, drawings, and prints with a stylized butterfly cipher, seen here lightly inscribed at lower left.
Signed with butterfly monogram in plate lower left.
Inscribed in graphite in center of lower margin: 5416.
The Maxine Hornung Collection, Gift of Frank Raysor
A Celebration of Print: 500 Years of Graphic Art from the Frank Raysor Collection
VMFA, 29 January - 22 May 2011
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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