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James McNeill Whistler 1834-1903
Liverdun, 1858signed and inscribed 'Imp. Delatre. Rue St. Jacques. 171.' in plate; inscribed 'Liverdun' in another hand in pencil to sheet; printed in black ink on laid paperetchingan impression in the third (final) state4 ¼ x 6 ¼ inches (10.9 x 15.6 cm)Created during Whistler’s 1858 tour of the Rhineland, Liverdun captures a rustic scene in a small town located northwest of Nancy on the river Moselle. This work was included in...Created during Whistler’s 1858 tour of the Rhineland, Liverdun captures a rustic scene in a small town located northwest of Nancy on the river Moselle. This work was included in Whistler’s ‘French Set’ (Douze eaux-fortes d'après Nature), and shows his commitment to working directly from nature rather than from memory or studio sketches. While the town is known for its medieval fortifications and ruined Renaissance buildings, Whistler chose to ignore these grand subjects in favour of a humble, sloping farmyard surrounded by asymmetric buildings. The composition, in keeping with the Realist movement, shows a clear stylistic debt to the Dutch etching tradition, particularly the works of Rembrandt.Literature
R. Thomas, A Catalogue of the Etchings and Drypoints of James Abbott MacNeil Whistler (London 1874), no. 2;F. Wedmore, Whistler's Etchings: a Study and a Catalogue (London 1886), no. 4;
H. Mansfield, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-Points of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (Chicago 1909), no. 16;
E.G. Kennedy, The Etched Work of Whistler (New York 1910), no. 16;
M.F. MacDonald, G. Petri, M. Hausberg, and J. Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, (Glasgow 2011), on-line website at http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk, no. 13
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