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Venetian Water Carrier

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1908.7)
Number: 197
Date: 1879/1880
Medium: drypoint
Size: 200 x 126 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 3
Catalogues: K.232; M.229
Impressions taken from this plate  (3)

KEYWORD

figure, girl, worker.

TITLE

Whistler's original title is not known. Variations in punctuation are as follows:

'Venetian Water-Carrier' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 1
'Venetian Water Carrier' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 2

Mansfield's version, 'Venetian Water-Carrier' is preferred.

1: Mansfield 1909, cat. no. 229.

2: Kennedy 1910, cat. no. 232.

DESCRIPTION

A young girl stands, walking forward, and looking down. She has very long hair and wears a long scarf about her shoulders. She carries a heavy bag or bucket in both hands: they look more like rectangular bags or baskets than round pails.

SITTER

Not identified. This is the only image of a single figure etched by Whistler in Venice. It is possible that the identification of the girl as a water-carrier is incorrect, and she is just shopping. Whistler also etched water-carriers in the background of The Beggars [190]. The women of Venice carried water in buckets strung from poles on their shoulders, as in the two woman at the far left of the passageway in The Beggars [190], reproduced below.
Impression: K1940205