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Wimpole Street

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46895)
Number: 279
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 100 x 67 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 2
Catalogues: K.286; M.278
Impressions taken from this plate  (2)

KEYWORD

building, cab, horse, street.

TITLE

The site is Wimpole Street and the title used by Whistler and others always included the street name. Examples of titles are as follows:


'Wimpole Street' (1887, Whistler). 3
'The Hansom Cab, or Wimpole Street' (1904, Grolier Club). 4
'Wimpole Street' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 5
'Hansom Cab (Wimpole Street)' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 6


The Grolier Club introduced the detail of 'Hansom Cab' because there is a cab in the foreground, but Whistler and most other cataloguers called it 'Wimpole Street'.

3: [August 1887/1888], GUW #13233.

4: New York 1904a (cat. no. 324).

5: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 278).

6: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 286).

DESCRIPTION

The view across a street, showing part of the ground floor and two upper floors of a row of buildings. The houses have pillars on the ground floor, and railings in front. In the foreground at left is a passer-by, and to right stands a horse-drawn cab; another cab is on the other side of the street at left.

SITE

Comparative image
Wimpole Street, 2010.
Photograph©M.F.MacDonald, Whistler Etchings Project.

Wimpole Street, London UK. It was famous as the address of many distinguished doctors including Whistler's brother William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900), who lived at 28 Wimpole Street, near Cavendish Square. This could be the view from Dr Whistler's house but the buildings have been substantially altered.