Shopfront with three figures: a boy looking into the shop while the butcher stands by and a girl sits to one side.
Signatures:
Unsigned.
Inscriptions:
Left edge of page: Boutique de Boucher, Saverne
Paper/Support:
On a smooth surfaced, blue-colored, laid paper with the chain lines running vertically. There are 2.8 cm between chain lines and ten laid lines per cm. There is a partial, upside-down, BLAUW watermark at the right of the bottom edge.
Label:
Even in his late work, Whistler remained true to subjects he had first explored during his travels along the Rhine River decades earlier with works such as Boutique de Boucher-Saverne. Echoing the Rhine watercolor, the London lithograph depicts the picturesque building housing another butcher’s shop and a dog sitting patiently in front of a window filled with succulent joints of meat.
Provenance:
Seymour Haden (1818-1910), London [1]
To 1898
H. Wunderlich & Co., New York to 1898 [2]
From 1898 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from H. Wunderlich & Co., through Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938), in November 1898 [3]
From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]
Notes:
[1] See Original Whistler List, Haden Collection Drawings, pg. 1, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
[2] See Voucher No. 20, November 1898, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
[3] See note 2.
[4] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
Collection:
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Exhibition History:
Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change (November 18, 2023 to May 4, 2024)
Whistler in Watercolor (May 18 to November 3, 2019)
James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art: Whistler as Artist (May 11, 1984 to December 5, 1984)
Previous custodian or owner:
Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910)
H. Wunderlich & Co. (1874-1912) (C.L. Freer source)
