James McNeill Whistler 1834-1903

One of Whistler's most iconic London views, Rotherhithe was etched from the balcony of the Angel Inn in Bermondsey, looking northwest toward Wapping. His vertical division of the composition with an asymmetrical post shows Whistler experimenting with Japanese ukiyo-e devices found in prints that he owned, including those by Kiyonaga. The etching served as a preliminary study for his major painting Wapping (on show at Tate Britain in their Whistler exhibition, closing 27 September), and both works feature figures seated on the tavern balcony overlooking the river. Whistler wrote to his friend Fantin-Latour about the difficulty of painting the ‘unbelievably difficult’ background of shifting boats and rigging directly from nature. In the print, the dome of St Paul's is just visible through a complex web of masts.