Subject
Two figures in conversation on the balcony of the Angel Inn pub in Cherry Gardens, Rotherhithe, on the south bank of the River Thames. Beyond them a view of the upper reach of the river looking towards the Pool and St Pauls Cathedral. A brig (an ocean-going two-masted merchant ship) is moored below the balcony and a lighter and sailing barges are tied up the wharf adjacent to the Angel Inn.
Printing
Ellis & Green, London, 1871 as part of A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames also known as The Thames Set. This is a bold early impression of the published state, with the additional drypoint on the sleeve of the left-hand figure printing very strongly. It is likely that it comes from an early printing of The Thames Set or was a proof of the newly-added work.
History
The image, which shares subject-matter with Whistler's important Anglo-French Realist painting Wapping (1860-64 and Francis Seymour Haden's Yacht Tavern, Erith (NBS 0060), is both a topographical view of the epicentre of European imperialism and a genre subject in which ‘physiogomic’ types appear to negotiate and conspire. Although the plate predates the American Civil War, the subject may be linked to the clandestine attempts by agents of the Confederacy to obtain arms and miltiary supples in Europe. The street behind the Angel Inn was the location of the London Armoury Company, a major manufacturer of military small-arms and an important supplier to the Southern government from 1861-64.
The print is one of Whistler's best-known etchings. The cropped composition exhibits the beginnings of his exploration of Japanese constructions of space and viewpoint, predating paintings such as Purple and Rose, The Lange Liezen of the Six Marks and Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen (both 1864) by several years.
This impression has been significantly affected by damp and mould, with visible black mould damage across the lower left corner and in the sky centre right.
Purchased from Lassco, Vauxhall, London, 3rd February, 2024
