Early Morning, Battersea (Battersea Dawn) (Cadogan Pier)

James McNeill Whistler

probably 1863 · Etching and drypoint, printed in black ink on cream laid Japan; second state of two (Glasgow) · Drawings and Prints

Whistler here responds to the calm of the Thames at dawn, placing a beached rowboat across the foreground , and small sailboats clustered around a wooden dock at center. Beyond is a wooden ferry terminal on Cadogan Pier and Battersea Bridge extending across the river. Drypoint was combined with etching to create soft effects evocative of misty water under an overcast sky. The was like finished in 1863, and published in 1871 in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects (the "Thames Set").

Artist

James McNeill Whistler

Date

probably 1863

Medium

Etching and drypoint, printed in black ink on cream laid Japan; second state of two (Glasgow)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917