The Unsafe Tenement (The Old Farm)

James McNeill Whistler

1858 · Etching, printed in black ink on gray chine on white wove paper (chine collé); third state of four (Glasgow) · Drawings and Prints

Whistler found this dilapidated building during a summer tour of Alsace-Lorraine and the Rhineland. He carried sketchbooks, etching needles and copper plates, etching about six plates between mid-August and October. Such restraint suggests many preparatory sketches and careful planning before needle touched copper. Crumbling architecture is here given an unidealized individuality in a way that echoes how realist painters approached the human figure. In November 1858, Whistler included the print in his first published set, "Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" ("Twelve Etchings from Nature"), known as the "French Set."

Artist

James McNeill Whistler

Date

1858

Medium

Etching, printed in black ink on gray chine on white wove paper (chine collé); third state of four (Glasgow)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917