Liverdun

James McNeill Whistler American

Not on view

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, creating 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.

Liverdun, James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London), Etching, printed in black ink on gray chine on off-white wove paper (chine collé); third state of three (Glasgow)

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Liverdun, James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London), Etching, printed in black ink on gray chine on off-white wove paper (chine collé); third state of three (Glasgow)
Liverdun, James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London), Etching, printed in black ink on gray chine on off-white wove paper (chine collé); third state of three (Glasgow)

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