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- Accession Number
- 1954/1.362
- Title
- Battersea Morn
- Artist
- James McNeill Whistler
- Artist Nationality
- American
- Artist Life Dates
- 1834 - 1903
- Medium and Support
- drypoint, printed in brown ink on laid paper
- Object Creation Date
- 1877
- Object Creation Place
- North and Central America (continent)
- United States (nation)
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker
- Inscription
- Signed in pencil on tab: butterfly Inscribed in pencil, on verso, l.l. (in Whistler's hand): "Battersea Morn" - 1st - / Plate destroyed Signed on the plate, u.r.: butterfly Watermark: Arms of Amsterdam
- Dimensions
- 14.9 cm x 22.5 cm (5 7/8 in. x 8 7/8 in.)
- Century
- 19th century
- Primary Object Classification and Primary Object Type
-
Printintaglio print
- Physical Description
- A stretch of water in the foreground and middle ground leads to a horizontal distant shore that is composed of a series of horizontal stepped recessions. The buildings on the far shore appear to be industrial buildings, with many smokestacks. At the bottom of the image are some lightly drawn boats.
- Subject Matter
- Whsitler's home in Chelsea afforded him with views such as this looking towards the commercial portions of Battersea, across the Thames. Whistler favored depicting the river at transitional times of day: dawn, dusk, nighttime because the reduced lighting suggested a poetic beauty, even of warehouses, that broad daylight did not. Here, at dawn, Whistler captures the moment when the shape and mass of objects just begins to coalesce and take on substance.
