UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

boy, canal, cat, child, gate, garden, steps, tree, woman standing.

There are three minor variations on the title, as follows:


'The Garden' (1881/1886, Whistler). 1
'Garden' (1883, F.A.S.). 2
'Garden' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 3
'Garden Venice' (1890/1891, Whistler). 4
'The Garden' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 5


'The Garden' is the original and generally accepted title.

Steps lead from a canal to an open doorway in a high stone wall, parallel to the edge of the copper plate. A boy sits by the door-frame at left, facing right, with one foot in the water, and another boy is sitting further up the steps to his right, looking at him. The door leads into a garden with bushes, a slender tree, and vines or other climbing plants on the building at the far side of the courtyard. In the doorway of the house stands a woman holding a child, and to her right, another woman bends down to a small table or bench. Above the door is a narrow horizontal window with square grille or panes, and on the first floor, to right, two very tall arched windows behind a balcony, and at left another arched window. For later changes to the composition, see STATES.

Venice, Italy. This is one of the few sites not identified: the presence of a substantial flowering garden is notable.

The door is a gate onto a canal and provides a frame for the glittering tree-filled garden, and light figures in front of a second door. This use of frames parallel to the edge of the plate, the alternation of light and dark, and the bridging motif of a child on the steps, are all typical of Whistler's compositions.