The Thames / James McNeill Whistler
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About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 1954/1.463
- Title
- The Thames
- Artist
- James McNeill Whistler
- Artist Nationality
- American
- Artist Life Dates
- 1834-1903
- Medium and Support
- Lithotint with scraping on a prepared half-tint ground on heavy wove paper
- Object Creation Date
- 1896
- Object Creation Place
- North and Central America (continent)
- United States (nation)
- Creation Place 1
- North and Central America (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- United States (nation)
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker
- Inscription
- On the stone, in the water, l.r.: Butterfly monogram Collector's mark: Rosalind Birnie Philip. Lugt 405
- Dimensions
- 27.5 cm x 27.4 cm (10 13/16 in. x 10 13/16 in.)
- Century
- 19th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Physical Description
- This work portrays a view across a river, whose surface is dotted with shipping. Drawn from a very high vantage point, a roadway is seen through a screen of nearly leafless trees at the bottom of the image; in the distance the far bank of the shore is congested with buildings, some towers--particularly a large one to the right of center--and smoke blowing away and to the right from the viewer can be seen.
- Subject Matter
- This view of London from the top floor of the new Savoy Hotel brings together many of Whistler's precepts about art. The flatness and division of the vertical format into horizontal strata shows his affinities with Asian art; it is a nocturne--Whistler's great signature subject; as his work was always evolving towards nuance, effacement of details, and understatement, this lithograph must be reckoned as one of his great achievements as a printmaker. It also recalls the transformation from the quotidian to the beautiful that is the aim of the artist as Whistler described it in his "Ten O'Clock" lecture in 1885:
- "And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us—then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone."
- Secondary Keywords
- architecture
- bodies of water
- bodies of water and components of bodies of water
- bodies of water by size
- buildings and the land
- descriptors
- geography
- inorganic material
- landscapes (environments)
- materials
- materials by composition
- natural landscapes
- objects we use
- plants
- riverine bodies
- settlements and landscapes
- single built works
- single built works by function
- single built works by specific type
- streams
- the natural world
- transportation structures
- transportation structures by form
- transportation vehicles
- vegetation and vegetation components
- vegetation components
- vehicles
- watercraft
- watercraft by general type
- waterscapes
- woody plants
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 983 x 1357
- File Size
- 211 KB
- Record
- 1954/1.463
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1954-sl-1.463/1954_1.463.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
Portfolios
IIIF
- Manifest
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1954-SL-1.463:1954_1.463.JPG
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"The Thames; James McNeill Whistler." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1954-sl-1.463/1954_1.463.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 29, 2024.