UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

animal, balcony, café, boat, bridge, children, mast, people, sailing boat, quay, street.

One main title is recorded, as follows:


'The Little Mast' (1883, Fine Art Society). 1
'The Little Mast' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 2
'The Little Mast' (1887/1888, Whistler). 3


Whistler's original title, 'The Little Mast' is generally accepted.

Five children stand in the near foreground in a broad cobbled street opening onto the waterfront. Behind them, at the far side of the street, is a tall Venetian mast with a winged creature on an orb at the top, and with halyards looped to the roof of one of the buildings along the far side of the square at left. Near the children, at right, is the corner of a building with two men seated on the ground. Behind the mast is a balustrade leading to a bridge, busy with people. Beyond this are the sails of small boats and the masts of sailing ships by the quayside that runs into the distance at far right. Three- and four-storey buildings line the street at left, with wrought-iron balconies casting strong shadows. There are people standing on the street and sitting at a table under an awning at far left, and two skinny cats (or dogs, though this is less likely) in the middle of the street to left.

It shows the view west down the broad Via Garibaldi to the Ponte de la Veneta Marina and the quayside, in the Castello area of the City of Venice, Italy. 4 It was near the Public Gardens, and also near Whistler's lodgings during the summer of 1880, at the Casa Jankowitz. This view, drawn accurately on the copper plate, is reversed, as usual, in the print.

The site was etched by a fellow resident, Otto Henry Bacher (1856-1909), in Castello Quarters, Riva and painted by another fellow-American, Frank Duveneck (1848-1919) in Water Carriers, Venice. Castello Quarters, Riva was published in Etchings of Venice, which might be called Bacher's 'Venice Set'. 5