W. Jones, Lime-Burner, Thames Street

James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)

Signed and dated “1859”

Etching and drypoint, printed in black ink on thin japan paper

9 7/8 x 7 inches (25.2 x 17.7 cm); sheet 13 1/2 x 10 inches (34.5 x 25.3 cm)

This is the second (final) state, aside from the edition published in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects, (the Thames Set) published by Ellis & Green in 1871.

Source: Whistler on the Thames.

See commentary below

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Commentary by Gordon Cooke

Using an upright format, Whistler shows the Thames from the shore, leading the eye through a succession of timber buildings to a small vignette of the river and the opposite bank, placed just left of centre. The premises of William Jones & Co. were at 241 and 242 Wapping High Street, a few doors from the sites of Thames Police and Eagle Wharf. Although this work is widely known as ‘The Lime-Burner’, the first title, used when it was shown at the Royal Academy of Arts the summer after it was made, demonstrates Whistler to be a committed Realist, choosing a subject from modern life and specifically identifying the working man in the picture.

After its first showing at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1860 (943), it was exhibited in The Works of James Whistler – Etchings and Dry Points at E. Thomas’s print shop, 39 Old Bond Street in 1861. The subject was published in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects, (the Thames Set) (no. 9). The plate was sold by F. Keppel & Co. to Charles Lang Freer in 1896 and is now in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art.

Bibliography

Kennedy, Edward G. The Etched Work of Whistler. New York: 1910. No. 46.

MacDonald, Margaret F. Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock. James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné. No. 55. University of Glasgow, 2011. Web.

Whistler on the Thames. London: The Fine Art Society, 2013. No. 8, pp. 30-31.

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Last modified 22 May 2014