Etching printed on Dutch ‘antique’ laid paper trimmed by the artist, 1888
This shows one of the more well known landmarks of Renaissance architecture among the plates made on Whistler’s honeymoon tour of the Touraine in the autumn of 1888. The edifice housing the Hôtel de Ville was built in 1535-43 beside a medieval gate (Porte de Picois). A few years earlier Henry James had written in his book, A Little Tour in France (1884): ‘The little streets of Loches wander crookedly down the hill, and are full of charming pictorial “bits”: an old town-gate, passing under a mediaeval tower, which is ornamented by Gothic windows and the empty niches of statues; a meagre but delicate hotel de ville, of the Renaissance, nestling close beside it.’
Bequeathed by G. J. F. Knowles 1959
Collections record: P.89-1959
