Etching printed on Dutch(?) ‘antique’ laid paper trimmed by the artist, 1887
In August 1887 Whistler travelled to Belgium and Holland with his brother and sister-in-law. He took with him prepared plates and made nineteen etchings, thirteen of them in Brussels in September. As in the London etchings of this period, he mainly chose subjects away from tourist sites, but he was attracted by the celebrated Grand’Place, with its seventeenth-century Guild Houses. Rather than emphasise the monumentality of the recently restored House of the Dukes of Brabant (named after a series of busts along the front), Whistler evoked the decorative play of light and shade over its facade.
In February 1888 he supplied proofs of the Brussels etchings for Dowdeswells’ to sell.
Bequeathed by G. J. F. Knowles 1959
Collections record: P.86-1959
