Object Details
- Artist
- James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
- Signatures
- Signed with the Butterfly on the drawing and with the Butterfly in pencil on the print.
- Edition/State
- One impression.
- Label
- Whistler kept a firm grasp on the interlocking dynamics of performance, publicity, and prosperity. One of his earliest cropped, geometric streetscapes pictured the Gaiety Theatre. He revisited this motif in 1896, two years after theater manager George Edwardes premiered the comedy The Shop Girl, ushering in a form of musical entertainment suitable for respectable Victorian audiences. The heroine, Bessie Brent, is an underpaid store employee who believes her job will never reward her financially or romantically. Yet she eventually inherits one million dollars and finds true love, solidifying the “noble institution” of the retail warehouse, the precursor to the modern department store.
- Provenance
- From 1896 to 1919
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from the artist in 1896 [1]
- From 1920
- Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [2]
- Notes:
- [1] See Original Whistler List, Lithographs, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Purchase Voucher is dated November 28, 1896.
- [2] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
- Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art Collection
- Exhibition History
- Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change (November 18, 2023 to May 4, 2024)
- Lithographs and Lithotints by Whistler (March 23, 1925 to March 24, 1930)
- Special Exhibition, Whistler Etchings and Lithographs (January 14, 1924 to February 18, 1924)
- Previous custodian or owner
- James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) (C.L. Freer source)
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- 1896
- Accession Number
- F1896.76
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Medium
- Ink on paper
- Dimensions
- H x W: 17.5 x 13.6 cm (6 7/8 x 5 3/8 in)
- Origin
- United States
- Related Online Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- See more items in
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
- Topic
- theater
- United States
- American Art
- store front
- Charles Lang Freer collection
- Record ID
- fsg_F1896.76
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye3f01f1587-e550-4950-bfe8-510a1750a7c8
