Old Battersea Bridge (1879): Artwork and History

Old Battersea Bridge (1879) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as James McNeill Whistler American, 1834-1903.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This print reflects James McNeill Whistler's preservationist instincts along with his interest in picturesque London architecture. Battersea Bridge, within eyesight of Whistler's home in Chelsea and the subject of many of his most celebrated works, was closed to traffic in 1883 and eventually demolished in 1890. By depicting boats and pedestrians freely moving through a wood bridge that is abruptly cut off at the edges, Whistler infused the object with an elegance akin to that found in the works of Utagawa Hiroshige. As early as 1863, Whistler was an avid collector of Japanese objects, and he soon became the most prominent ambassador of japonisme between England and France.

Object facts

• Title: Old Battersea Bridge
• Date: 1879
• Artist attribution: James McNeill Whistler American, 1834-1903
• Place of origin: United States
• Medium: Etching and drypoint with foul biting in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Plate: 20.3 × 29.6 cm (8 × 11 11/16 in.); Sheet: 25.7 × 40.6 cm (10 1/8 × 16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1924.647

Collection credit

John H. Wrenn Memorial Collection

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.