Archway, Brussels
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Accession Number
F1903.169
Tags
About this artwork
A dramatically arched gate marks the entrance to the narrow Impasse des Liserons, just off the High Street in Brussels, Belgium. Whistler included signage clearly identifying the enterprise at left, fronting the High Street itself. The door stands invitingly open, the windows are crammed with goods, and the shop sign âVANDENBROECK · DE BECKER · BOULANGER · 337.â identifies a bakery that served the old working-class neighborhood of Les Marolles.
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler’s 1887 print *Archway, Brussels* captures a quiet moment in the working-class Les Marolles district of the Belgian capital. The composition centers on a dramatically arched gateway leading into the narrow Impasse des Liserons, while a nearby bakery—identified by its prominent sign “VANDENBROECK · DE BECKER · BOULANGER · 337”—invites viewers with an open door and goods displayed in the windows. Whistler’s keen eye for urban detail transforms an ordinary street corner into an intimate record of late-nineteenth-century city life. A master of etching, Whistler used delicate...