UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: dowdeswell

Gold House, Brussels

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1934.640)
Number: 336
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 179 x 67 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 4
Catalogues: K.360; M.359
Impressions taken from this plate  (4)

KEYWORD

Baroque, building, child, equestrian statue, horse, people, sculpture, square, statue.

TITLE

Minor variations on spelling and punctuation of the title are as follows:


'Gold House Brussels' (1887/1888, Whistler). 1
'Gold House' (1890/1891, Whistler). 2
'Gold House, Brussels' (1898, Wunderlich's). 3
Possibly 'Guild House, Brussels' (1900, Caxton Club). 4
'Gold House, Brussels' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 5
'Gold-House, Brussels' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 6


'Gold House, Brussels' is based on Whistler's original title.

There appears to have been some confusion between the title of this etching and Flower Market, Brussels [339], which was referred to as the 'Guild House'.

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

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

3: New York 1898 (cat. no. 256).

4: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 294).

5: Kennedy 1902 (cat. no. 347).

6: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 359).

DESCRIPTION

Across an open space, where several figures are standing, a short flight of steps between iron railings leads to a doorway flanked by tall arched windows. The façade is supported by four columns running the whole height of the building, framing large windows, and topped by a low semi-circular pediment, scrolls and a plinth bearing an equestrian statue.

SITE

Comparative image
Photograph© G. Petri, Whistler Etchings Project, 2010.
The Grand' Place, in Brussels, capital of Belgium. The etching shows the house 'L'Arbre d'or' (no. 10, Grand' Place), designed by Guillaume de Bruyn (1698), also known as 'La Maison des Brasseurs'. Standing on the south side of the Grand' Place, it is topped by Joseph Jacquet's 1853 equestrian statue of Charles de Lorraine.