The Little Wheelwright's |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46892) | |
| Number: | 261 | |
| Date: | 1886 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 66 x 98 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 13 | |
| Catalogues: | K.245; M.242 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (13) | ||
KEYWORD
canal, forge, house, people, wheelwright.
TITLE
Variations on the title are as follows:
'The Little Wheelwright's' (1904, Grolier Club). 2
'Little Wheelwright' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 3
'The Little Wheelwright’s' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 4
'The Little Wheelwright’s' is the earliest recorded and generally accepted title.
'The Little Wheelwright's' (1904, Grolier Club). 2
'Little Wheelwright' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 3
'The Little Wheelwright’s' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 4
'The Little Wheelwright’s' is the earliest recorded and generally accepted title.
DESCRIPTION
Two adjoining buildings with gable ends, each with a door and side window and a window above, are seen across a canal. Abutting on the building at the left are two low sheds, and next, at far left, figures in a garden behind palings. In front of the buildings are several tyres, a large wheel and a grindstone.
SITE
This is probably Dordrecht, a busy sea-port and ferry terminal at the mouth of the Maas in the Netherlands. Whistler often passed through the town and made a number of paintings there between about 1882 and 1902, and several etchings including Dordrecht [259], Little Dordrecht [260] and Barges, Dordrecht [262].
DISCUSSION
Whistler etched, drew and painted several forges with smiths and wheelwrights, the earliest being The Forge [86], and others including The Little Forge, Liverpool [141], Wheelwright [240], and such lithographs as The Tyresmith [c036], The Smith, Passage du Dragon [c103] and The Smith's Yard [c124], and a later oil, The Little Forge, Lyme Regis [y442].