Etching printed on Dutch(?) ‘antique’ laid paper trimmed by the artist, c.1887
One of the etchings of shops and street scenes in Chelsea made in the 1880s. Milman’s Row (now Milman’s Street) led from the King’s Road to the river, just along from Whistler’s former house in Lindsey Row. Some of Whistler’s earliest figure etchings of 1858 had been of people involved in the rag trade (see The Old Rag Gatherer and The Rag Gatherers), but the emphasis here is much more on the picturesque possibilities of the setting (see also Clothes-Exchange, Houndsditch, No. 1 below). Whistler’s early titles for this print probably included ‘The Steps, Milman’s Row’. He also made a drawing, a lithograph and two smaller etchings of the same subject, one of the latter featuring the adjacent furniture shop in more detail. Each was observed independently from life, and evidently sketched on the spot.
Bequeathed by G. J. F. Knowles 1959
Collections record: P.83-1959
