5. James Abbott McNeill Whistler
(1834-1903)

Old Hungerford Bridge

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Whistler, Old Hungerford Bridge

Old Hungerford Bridge

Etching, and drypoint, 1861, 137 x 209 mm., Kennedy 76 ii/iii; Mansfield 76, from 16 Etchings of the Thames. Fine impression before the smoke from the steamboat was outlined, on tissue-thin, laid japan paper with good margins; two minor printer's creases in the lower left corner. This is one of the less celebrated images from The Thames Set, but it is no less brilliant in its subtle distinctions of focus, clear and detailed or soft and hazy, as determined by immediate atmospheric conditions. The supports of the bridge, for example, differ from one another in clarity due to mist and smoke and the foreground purposely lacks definition from the brilliance of light. The masterly arrangement of complex subject matter on the plate distinguished -- and still distinguishes -- Whistler from the host of other able etchers trying to do the same thing.