Rotherhithe (or Wapping)

Early impressions were published in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames (‘The Thames Set’) by Ellis & Green in 1871. The view is in reverse and has resulted in the location confusingly being identified as Wapping. The image was sketched in Rotherhithe on the south side of the Thames looking across the river to Wapping. The inn where the image was sketched still exists. It is ‘The Angel’ in Bermondsey Wall East, Rotherhithe. The long scratch that tears across the plate from top to bottom was apparently caused by the artist having been startled by a brick falling close to him as he worked.

The etching bears a relationship to Whistler’s painting Wapping, 1860-4 (National Gallery of Art, Washington). In the painting the figures include Whistler’s regular model Joanna Hiffernan, the painter Matthew White Ridley and an unidentified sailor. The scene showing a working area of the Thames is of a type that was popular in the ‘Realist’ narratives of the mid-19th century.

1. Edward G. Kennedy, The Etched Work of Whistler. New York, Grolier Club, 1910 (66)
2. Howard Mansfield, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-Points of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Chicago, Caxton Club, 1909 (66)
3. Ralph Thomas, A Catalogue of the Etchings and Drypoints of J.A M. Whistler. London, John Russell Smith, 1874 (41)
4. Sir Frederick Wedmore, Whistler’s Etchings: a Study and a Catalogue. London, Thibaudeau, 1886 (60)
5. Whistler Etchings Project (70)

1. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham
2. British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, London
3. Hunterian Art Gallery Collections, University of Glasgow, Glasgow
4. Museum of London, London
5. Victoria and Albert Museum: Print Collection, London
6. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

See the Whistler Etchings Project for a list of impressions.

1. Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionary of Artists. Paris, Gründ, 2006
2. Rodney K. Engen, Dictionary of Victorian Engravers, Print Publishers and Their Works. Cambridge, Chadwyck-Heley, 1979
3. Kenneth M. Guichard, British Etchers 1850-1940. London, Robin Garton Ltd., 1977
4. Katharine A. Lochnan, The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1984
5. Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1995
6. William Rough, ‘A cluster of butterflies: James Guthrie Orchar and his collection of Whistler etchings and drypoints’, Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History, Volume 16, 2011-12