Liverdun

James McNeill Whistler

1858 · Etching; third state of three (Glasgow); printed in black ink on fine antique gray laid paper · Drawings and Prints

Whistler visited Liverdun, a town on the Moselle, near the start of a summer Rhineland tour in 1858. He traveled by train between Nancy and Strasbourg, making sketches and a few etchings, including the present work. Here, old farm buildings frame a yard and establish what would become a favorite formal arrangement. Roofs and walls are punctuated with shadowed openings to create a play of lights and darks enlivened with the lightly etched forms of farm workers, ladders and a cart. A white cow walks out of the space at right, and broad expanses below and above suggest ground and sky. This composition was one included in "Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" (known as the "French Set"), the artist's first published work, issued in November 1858.

Artist

James McNeill Whistler

Date

1858

Medium

Etching; third state of three (Glasgow); printed in black ink on fine antique gray laid paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Julia H. Manges, in memory of her husband, Dr. Morris Manges, 1960