The Little Wheelwright's |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46892) | |
| Number: | 261 | |
| Date: | 1886 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 66 x 98 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 13 | |
| Catalogues: | K.245; M.242 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (13) | ||
KEYWORD
canal, forge, house, people, wheelwright.
TITLE
Variations on the title are as follows:
'The Little Wheelwright's' (1904, Grolier Club). 2
'Little Wheelwright' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 3
'The Little Wheelwright’s' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 4
'The Little Wheelwright’s' is the earliest recorded and generally accepted title.
'The Little Wheelwright's' (1904, Grolier Club). 2
'Little Wheelwright' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 3
'The Little Wheelwright’s' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 4
'The Little Wheelwright’s' is the earliest recorded and generally accepted title.
2: New York 1904a (cat. no. 294).
3: Mansfield 1909[more] (cat. no. 242).
4: Kennedy 1910[more] (cat. no. 245).
DESCRIPTION
Two adjoining buildings with gable ends, each with a door and side window and a window above, are seen across a canal. Abutting on the building at the left are two low sheds, and next, at far left, figures in a garden behind palings. In front of the buildings are several tyres, a large wheel and a grindstone.
SITE
This is probably Dordrecht, a busy sea-port and ferry terminal at the mouth of the Maas in the Netherlands. Whistler often passed through the town and made a number of paintings there between about 1882 and 1902, and several etchings including Dordrecht 259, Little Dordrecht 260 and Barges, Dordrecht 262.
DISCUSSION
Whistler etched, drew and painted several forges with smiths and wheelwrights, the earliest being The Forge 086, and others including The Little Forge, Liverpool 141, Wheelwright 240, and such lithographs as The Tyresmith c036, The Smith, Passage du Dragon c103 and The Smith's Yard c124, and a later oil, The Little Forge, Lyme Regis y442.