The Fishing Boat |  Art Institute of Chicago (1938.1884) | |
| Number: | 198 | |
| Date: | 1879/1880 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 157 x 234 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower right (1) | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Second Venice Set', 1886 | |
| No. of States: | 6 | |
| Known impressions: | 39 | |
| Catalogues: | K.208; M.205; W.178 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (39) | ||
KEYWORD
church, fisherman, fishing, lagoon, sailors, sea, ship, worker.
TITLE
Minor variations in the title and punctuation are as follows:
'The Fishing boat' (1882, Whistler). 1
'Fishing boat ' (1882, Whistler). 2
'Fishing Boat' (1883, FAS). 3
'Fishing boat Venice' (1880s, Whistler). 4
'Fishing-Boat' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 5
'The Fishing Boat' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 6
'The Fishing Boat' is based on the original and preferred title.
1: Whistler to W. Flower, August 1882, GUW #12989.
2: Whistler to Queen Victoria, 12 Sept.1882, GUW #13072.
3: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 38).
4: Written on verso of 
.
5: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 178).
6: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 208).
DESCRIPTION
In the centre, moored to one of a cluster of posts, lies a fishing boat. Nets hang on a pole between the two masts, with a man sitting in their shade. In the distance, at right, is the dome of a church, and several boats. All are reflected in the waters of the lagoon.
SITE
The lagoon, with the cemetery island of San Michele, Venice, Italy. 7
7: Grieve 2000, pp.138, 192, fig.171.
DISCUSSION
Examples of the range of fishing subjects in Whistler's work include individual fishermen in Sketching, No. 2 [84] and Man Fishing [404], to fishing boats at the quayside or shore in Billingsgate [51], Fishing Boats, Hastings [163] and Fishing Quay, Ostend [351], and fish-shops or stalls in Fish-Shop, Chelsea [267] and Fish Women, Ostend [349]