UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

band, dutch gables, façade, flags, music, people, square, town.

Minor variations on the title are as follows:


'Salvation Army. Sandwich' (1887, Whistler). 2
'The Salvation Army' (1887/1888, Whistler). 3
'Salvation Army' (1889, Whistler). 4
'Sandwich: Salvation Army' (1899, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 5
''Salvation Army, Sandwich' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 6


The title 'Salvation Army, Sandwich' is based on Whistler's original title.

A view across a broad square to a row of houses, some of which have large shop windows. At far right is a street leading off the square into the distance. There is a crowd of people in the square, mainly surrounding a group with two large flags, and more people in the street to right. The houses, brick-built, are two and three storeys high, with roofs and chimneys of varying heights, the three houses on the right having tall Dutch-style gables.

Whistler wrote: 'Salvation Army. Sandwich' on one impression (). The etching shows the Cattle Market, in the centre of the town of Sandwich, Kent, UK. The houses with their Flemish gables were demolished in the 1890s. Whistler avoided the more famous Guildhall (which still exists) to draw these more varied façades.

Arthur Evershed (1836-1919) made several etchings of Sandwich including one from the same spot as Whistler in 1882. He exhibited The Market Place, Sandwich at the Royal Society of Painter- Etchers and Engravers in 1892 (cat. no. 317). 7 Percy Thomas (1846-1922) made a Cinque Port series of etchings, and in 1895 exhibited two of Whistler's subjects, Butchers, Sandwich and Market Square, Sandwich at the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1895 (cat. nos. 146-7).

The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church, founded in 1865 in the UK by William and Catherine Booth as the East London Christian Mission. It had a quasi-military structure, the members wearing uniforms and having military ranks, holding open-air marches and meetings enlivened by singing and brass-bands, and providing food and shelter for the needy. Originally it targetted alcoholics, prostitutes, drug addicts and the poor. Thus it aroused opposition from publicans, and people who didn't like brass bands, and had mixed responses from the churches. One minister 'while disapproving of the blood and fire parade of the salvation army, welcomed most heartily the stimulus and inspiration they had given to the Church to be aggressive and indomitable.' 8