Eagle Wharf (Tyzac Whiteley and Co.)
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Accession Number
F1898.270
Tags
About this artwork
2, 1
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler’s *Eagle Wharf (Tyzac Whiteley and Co* (1859) captures the bustling industrial life along London’s Thames River during the Victorian era. Created when Whistler, an American-born artist working in Britain, was deeply immersed in documenting the gritty urban waterfront, this print likely depicts the Eagle Wharf area associated with the shipping firm Tyzac Whiteley and Co Featuring boats and human figures amid the docks, it reflects the rapid industrialization of mid-19th-century London, where commerce and labor intertwined on the riverbanks. As an etching—a printmaking te...