Limehouse

Artist James McNeill Whistler American, 1834 - 1903

Dateetched 1859; printed and published in 1871

MediumEtching

DimensionsSheet: 5 15/16 x 8 15/16 in. (15.1 x 22.7 cm)
Plate mark: 5 1/16 x 8 1/16 in.

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineGift of Patricia Bixby Hoopes

Object number2009.5.1

On View

Not on view

Collections

Works on Paper

SignedSigned in the plate, lower center: "Whistler 1859".

DescriptionScene of the docks in the Limehouse district on the north bank of the River Thames in the East End of London. Canal barges in the foreground, with a figure kneeling near the front of the one closest to the viewer. The masts of larger sailing vessels crowd the background. Buildings to the right with a woman ascending a stairway into one and a man emerging from another. He appears to be headed for a cleated ramp that leads down onto the barge in the right foreground.

Limehouse was a shipbuilding and maintenance location. In addition, the cargos of larger ships were offloaded onto smaller barges for transport up subsidiary canals from the Thames.ProvenanceWilliam K. Bixby; Patricia B. Hoopes, Bolton Landing, NY; gift to The Hyde Collection, 2009.