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The Barrow - Quartier des Marolles, Brussels

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1917.509)
Number: 346
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 128 x 178 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 8
Known impressions: 17
Catalogues: K.357; M.356; W.253
Impressions taken from this plate  (17)

KEYWORD

barrow, cart, children, fruit, fruitseller, genre, people, shop, stall, streetscape.

TITLE

Variations on the title are as follows:


'The Barrow - Quartier des Marolles / Brussels ' (1887, Whistler). 1
'The Barrow' (1887/1888, Whistler). 2
'The Barrow (Brussels)' (1889, Exposition Universelle). 3
'Barrow The Brussels' (1890/1891, Whistler). 4
'The Barrow, Brussels' (1899, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 5


'The Barrow - Quartier des Marolles, Brussels' is Whistler's original title although he simplified it later.

1: Written on and with different punctuation, on .

2: List, [1887/1888], GUW #13233.

3: Paris Exp. Univ. 1889 (cat. no. 419).

4: List, [1890/1891], GUW #13236.

5: Wedmore 1899[more] (cat. no. 253).

DESCRIPTION

A market-barrow stands in the street, its handles to left, in front of a window with open shutters. Pots on a shelf are just visible in the dark interior. A young woman and child sit behind the barrow, which is selling a mixture of foodstuffs. To right is an open doorway, with a small cross on the wall above it, and two women standing in the shadows of the doorway. In the foreground at right a girl wearing a short skirt and carrying parcels is walking towards the viewer. Just behind her, to left, is the indication of a child's head, and to right, the head and shoulders of a small child.

SITE

Brussels, capital of Belgium. Whistler etched a series of subjects in the Grand'Place and in the backstreets around it. A similar subject is seen in Children's Fruit Barrow 347.