Etchings Institutions search term: british museum
The Garden |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46616) | |
| Number: | 194 | |
| Date: | 1879/1880 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 307 x 240 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Second Venice Set', 1886 | |
| No. of States: | 15 | |
| Known impressions: | 43 | |
| Catalogues: | K.210; M.207; W.180 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (43) | ||
KEYWORD
boy, canal, cat, child, gate, garden, steps, tree, woman standing.
TITLE
There are three minor variations on the title, as follows:
'The Garden' (1881/1886, Whistler). 1
'Garden' (1883, F.A.S.). 2
'Garden' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 3
'Garden Venice' (1890/1891, Whistler). 4
'The Garden' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 5
'The Garden' is the original and generally accepted title.
'The Garden' (1881/1886, Whistler). 1
'Garden' (1883, F.A.S.). 2
'Garden' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 3
'Garden Venice' (1890/1891, Whistler). 4
'The Garden' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 5
'The Garden' is the original and generally accepted title.
1: List, [1877-1903], GUW #13088.
2: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 40).
3: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 180).
4: List, [1890/1891], GUW #13236.
5: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 210).
DESCRIPTION
Steps lead from a canal to an open doorway in a high stone wall, parallel to the edge of the copper plate. A boy sits by the door-frame at left, facing right, with one foot in the water, and another boy is sitting further up the steps to his right, looking at him. The door leads into a garden with bushes, a slender tree, and vines or other climbing plants on the building at the far side of the courtyard. In the doorway of the house stands a woman holding a child, and to her right, another woman bends down to a small table or bench. Above the door is a narrow horizontal window with square grille or panes, and on the first floor, to right, two very tall arched windows behind a balcony, and at left another arched window. For later changes to the composition, see STATES.
SITE
Venice, Italy. This is one of the few sites not identified: the presence of a substantial flowering garden is notable.
DISCUSSION
The door is a gate onto a canal and provides a frame for the glittering tree-filled garden, and light figures in front of a second door. This use of frames parallel to the edge of the plate, the alternation of light and dark, and the bridging motif of a child on the steps, are all typical of Whistler's compositions.