Etching and drypoint printed on Dutch ‘antique’ laid paper trimmed by the artist, 1889
Whistler arrived with his wife Beatrice in Amsterdam in late August 1889 with the intention of making a series of prints. He spent over two months exploring the city’s waterways and made a series of 12 etchings from the low vantage point of a boat. This is one of two views of store fronts on Oudezijds Achterburgwal, then known as Rottenest, forming part of the back of no. 48 Zeedijk (this view became popular with other artists, such as D. Y. Cameron, who etched it in 1892). The depiction of hanging laundry repeats a theme of Whistler’s recent London etchings (see Rag-Shop, Milman’s Row and Clothes-Exchange, Houndsditch, No. 1 ).
This is the second state of the plate, printed before the addition of the extra shading seen in the impression below.
Bequeathed by G. J. F. Knowles 1959
Collections record: P.91-1959
