Collection
/
American Art

Old Putney Bridge

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

A major proponent of Aestheticism and Japonisme, James McNeill Whistler also helped to revitalize etching as a serious, creative pursuit. His appreciation for this medium was fostered, in part, by close study of etchings by the seventeenth-century Dutch master Rembrandt. For his own prolific output, Whistler often went out into the streets of London (where he settled in 1859), capturing urban views directly onto plates. Back in the studio, he would painstakingly experiment with inking processes and the timing of the acid bath, refining his original conceptions to create prints of great technical and visual complexity. Internationally acclaimed and exhibited, Whistler’s etchings exerted a strong influence on a younger generation of American painter-etchers.

Caption

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903). Old Putney Bridge, 1879. Black ink on handmade laidpaper with a watermark and a countermark, Image: 8 x 11 3/4 in. (20.3 x 29.8 cm) Sheet: 11 13/16 x 15 7/8 in. (30 x 40.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Guy Mayer, 51.238.1. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

American Art

Title

Old Putney Bridge

Date

1879

Medium

Black ink on handmade laidpaper with a watermark and a countermark

Classification

Print

Dimensions

Image: 8 x 11 3/4 in. (20.3 x 29.8 cm) Sheet: 11 13/16 x 15 7/8 in. (30 x 40.3 cm)

Signatures

Signed butterfly monogram with "imp." in graphite below lower right corner of plate; signed butterfly monogram followed by "x x [v or n?]" in graphite at lower right of sheet; printed monogram at lower center of plate

Inscriptions

On verso, inscribed in graphite at lower left of sheet: "K. IV of IV" On verso, inscribed in graphite: "E3863"

Markings

Watermark: "PRO PATRIA" with a lion and a female figure within a fence-like circle Countermark: "LVG" On verso, Henry Harper Benedict's collector's mark stamped in black, "HHB" monogram Pro Patria watermark in paper

Credit Line

Gift of Guy Mayer

Accession Number

51.238.1

Have information?

Have information about an artwork? Contact us at

bkmcollections@brooklynmuseum.org.

Artists and makers

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

100 works in the collection