UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Flower Market, Brussels

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46635)
Number: 339
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 179 x 67 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 5
Catalogues: K.359; M.358
Impressions taken from this plate  (5)

KEYWORD

architecture, Baroque, flowers, market, people, sculpture, square, stall, street, vegetables.

TITLE

There are two basic versions of the title as well as variations in punctuation, as follows:


'Flower Market, Brussels' (1887, R.B.A). 2
'Flower Market' (1887/1888, Whistler). 3
'Flower Market - Brussels' (1888, Whistler). 4
'Flower Market Brussels' (1890/1891, Whistler). 5
Possibly 'Guild House, Brussels' (1900, Caxton Club). 6
'A Guild House, Brussels' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 7
'The Flower Market Brussels' (1903, Whistler). 8
'Guild House, Brussels' (1903, Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919)). 9
'A Guild House, Brussels' (1904, Frederick Keppel (1845-1912)). 10
'Flower-Market, Brussels' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 11
'Flower Market, Brussels' (1910, E.G. Kennedy). 12


It does seem as if there was some confusion about the title of this etching; in title and composition it was easily mistaken for Gold House, Brussels [336].

However, 'Flower Market, Brussels' is the earliest published title; it helps to distinguish the two sites and is generally accepted.

2: London RBA 1887-8 (cat. no. 527)

3: List, [1887/1888], GUW #13233.

4: G. Dieterlen to Whistler, 3 May 1888, GUW #07158.

5: List, [1890/1891], GUW #13236.

6: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. E294).

7: Kennedy 1902 (cat. no. 346).

8: To Dunthorne, [17 June 1903], GUW #13042.

9: Written on Graphic with a link to impression #K3590102.

10: New York 1904b (cat. no. 103).

11: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 358).

12: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 359).

DESCRIPTION

A view across a cobbled square to the narrow façades of three four-storey buildings. The first storey of the central building has a stone balcony, and windows framed by pilasters on that floor and the floor above. The dormer windows of this house and the one to left have elaborate carved decoration. In the square, there are people on the pavement, and a small cart at right. An umbrella, a trestle, baskets and pots, and a few plants stand in the foreground.

SITE

Comparative image
Photograph© G. Petri, Whistler Etchings Project, 2010.
The etching depicts three buildings in the north-east corner of the Grand'Place in Brussels, capital city of Belgium. From left to right they are: 46, rue au Beurre; 39, Grand'Place, called 'L'Âne' ('The Donkey'); and 38, Grand'Place, called 'Sainte-Barbe' (built in 1696).