UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

architecture, carriage, church, horse, market, people, sculpture, square.

Variations on the title are as follows:


'The Market, Bruges' (1887/1888, Whistler). 1
'Town Hall Bruges' (1890/1891, Whistler). 2
'Market Place, Bruges' (1899, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 3
'Market-Place, Bruges' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 4


This shows the market place in Bruges, not the Hotel de Ville, and so the first title used by Whistler, 'The Market, Bruges', is preferred.

In the foreground is a wide square, with several women wearing shawls at right, and numerous figures and several horse-drawn carriages to left, and the suggestion of a dog in the near foreground. At the far side of the square is the market hall; the wide arched entrance had elaborate carvings and statues, windows, and a window with a balcony high above it. To left and right of the door there are rows of gothic arched windows on the ground and first floor, and small square windows on the third floor. Steep roofs and a bell tower rise above the roof. On a side street at the left are two four-storey houses, and beyond them, the spire of a church.

Bell Tower, Bruges, 1910/1930, postcard, private collection.

The 13th century Cloth Hall and bell-tower (extended, burnt down and restored several times) dominate the Grote Markt (Grande Place, market-place), in Bruges, Belgium. The spire of the Church of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk), one of the highest in Europe, dating from the 13th-15th centuries, on the Vrouwekerkhof Zuid, is on the left (the view is reversed in the print). Whistler was probably sitting in the café recommended by Baedeker, looking south, with a view diagonally across the square. The statue now in the centre of the square, but not included in Whistler's view, was erected in 1887.

The Grote Markt, Bruges, 2011.
Photograph © Whistler Etchings Project, 2011.