Newspaper-Stall, Rue de Seine
Medium
Etching in dark brown ink on light gray laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet excluding tab: 8.4 × 20 cm (3 5/16 × 7 7/8 in.); Sheet including tab: 8.8 × 20 cm (3 1/2 × 7 7/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
137984
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling streets of late 19th-century Paris with James McNeillistler's *Newspaper-Stall, Rue de* (1893), a delicate etching that captures the everyday vibrancy of the city's Left Bank. Whistler, the American-born artist renowned for his Aesthetic movement ideals—prioritizing "art for art's sake" through subtle harmonies of tone and form—turned his keen eye to urban scenes like this one. The Rue de Seine, a lively artery near the Seine River, comes alive here with the modest charm of a newspaper stall, evoking the fleeting moments of Parisian life amid Whistler's late-career fasci...
About the Artist
James McNeill Whistler · 1834–1903
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was an American-born painter and printmaker who became a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement and pioneer of Tonalism and Japonisme. He revolutionized art by championing "art for art's sake" and treating paintings as visual equivalents of musical compositions, titling works as "arrangements," "harmonies," and "nocturnes" to emphasize formal qualities o...