Under the Cathedral, Blois |  Art Institute of Chicago (1934.642) | |
| Number: | 428 | |
| Date: | 1888 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 217 x 130 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 3 | |
| Catalogues: | K.397; M.396 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (3) | ||
KEYWORD
cathedral, people, shop, street, town.
TITLE
Variations on the title are as follows:
'Cathedral, Blois' (1888, Whistler). 1
'Under Cathedral - Blois' (1889, Whistler). 2
'Cathedral' (1889, Whistler). 3
'Under the Cathedral, Blois' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 4
'Notre Dame, Bourges' (1903/1935, possibly Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958)). 5
This is Blois, not Bourges, and 'Under the Cathedral, Blois' is the preferred title.
'Cathedral, Blois' (1888, Whistler). 1
'Under Cathedral - Blois' (1889, Whistler). 2
'Cathedral' (1889, Whistler). 3
'Under the Cathedral, Blois' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 4
'Notre Dame, Bourges' (1903/1935, possibly Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958)). 5
This is Blois, not Bourges, and 'Under the Cathedral, Blois' is the preferred title.
1: List, [1887/1888], GUW #13233.
2: Whistler to Wunderlich's, 14 and 24 May 1889, GUW #13056.
3: List, 18 July 1889, GUW #13235.
4: Kennedy 1902 (cat. no. 345).
5: Envelope containing copper plate, University of Glasgow.
DESCRIPTION
At the left, on the corner of a narrow street, stands a three-storey building, with an open doorway reached by steps, an open window in the first storey, and a small open window above. There are figures in the door and the window above it. To right is a smaller house with a dormer window in the roof. At the end of the street is a house of four stories that has shuttered windows on the first and second floors and a dormer-window in its pointed roof. At the right of this house rises a flight of steps, with figures in the space in front. Behind this house rises the spire of the cathedral.
SITE
Blois is a town in the Loire valley, France. The façade and the belltower of the Cathédrale Saint-Louis de Blois were built in 1544. The nave, destroyed in a hurricane, was rebuilt between 1680 and 1700 under the architect Arnoult-Séraphin Poictevin (d. 1720).