Regent's Quadrant |  Baltimore Museum of Art (1996.48.18108) | |
| Number: | 242 | |
| Date: | 1880/1881 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 166 x 122 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 7 | |
| Known impressions: | 10 | |
| Catalogues: | K.239; M.235; W.192 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (10) | ||
KEYWORD
arch, architecture, carriage, city, colonnade, four-wheeler, hansom-cabs, horse, people, shop, street.
TITLE
There are minor variations in the titles, as follows:
'Regent's Quadrant' (1883, F.A.S.) 2
'Regent Quadrant' (1886, Whistler). 3
'Regents Quadrant' (1887, Whistler). 4
'Regent Street' (1887/1888, Whistler). 5
'The Quadrant; Regent Street' (1903/1935, possibly Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958)). 6
'Regent's Quadrant' was Whistler's original title and that generally used by Whistler and later cataloguers..
'Regent's Quadrant' (1883, F.A.S.) 2
'Regent Quadrant' (1886, Whistler). 3
'Regents Quadrant' (1887, Whistler). 4
'Regent Street' (1887/1888, Whistler). 5
'The Quadrant; Regent Street' (1903/1935, possibly Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958)). 6
'Regent's Quadrant' was Whistler's original title and that generally used by Whistler and later cataloguers..
2: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 22).
3: Whistler to T. McLean, [1 November 1886], GUW #13010.
4: Whistler to Dowdeswell's, 27 July 1887, GUW #08677.
5: List, [1887/1888], GUW #13233.
6: Envelope containing copper plate, Hunterian Art Gallery.
DESCRIPTION
A busy London street (Regent Street), looking down from an arcade that has a supporting column at the left. In the street are several horse drawn carriages and hansom cabs, and many people. Across the street, which recedes uphill to left, there are shops with tall windows.
SITE
Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) wrote: 'It is a rapid glance at the Regent's Quadrant, with idlers, wayfarers, and rushing hansoms, seen from beneath the balustrade that crosses Air Street.' 7 Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) saw Whistler at work on the etching:
7: Wedmore 1886 A, cat. no. 192.
'Shortly afterwards he started on the proving
of the set of [Venetian] plates for the Fine Art Society, who
had taken a first-floor suite of two rooms for him
at the north-west corner of Air Street and Regent
Street, in the Quadrant over a stationer's shop.
The rooms were kept by a Frenchwoman. ... It was not an ideal room for the purpose,
being poorly lit in daytime, notwithstanding its
large bay window, for it was late in the year
(1880). The Society had had it fitted up with
a drugget to protect the carpet ... a bench, with gas fittings for the hot
plate, etc., and a printing-press. In the spare
time I made a little painting of the interior, with
Whistler at work, biting a plate, and my father
by the window, ... Out of our window you
looked under the balustrading which crosses Air
Street at part of the Quadrant, and my having
made a little pastel of the subject seemed to call
Whistler's attention to its possibilities, for he forthwith
drew the little plate
"Regent's Quadrant."' 8
8: Way 1912, pp. 41-3.
Joseph Pennell (1860-1926) confirmed that this view of a column and balustrade in Regent's Quadrant 'now torn down' was done from a 'bow window in Air Street'. 9
9: J. Pennell, n.d., draft catalogue (cat. no. 239), Library of Congress, Pennell Collection, Box 353.
DISCUSSION
Although Whistler frequently framed his main subjects in doorways or archways, this assymetrical, trapezoidal composition is less usual.