Sam Weller's Landlord in the Fleet
1853-1855
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Accession Number
F1905.332a-b
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Probably from 1905 to 1919
Art Historical Context
"Sam Weller's Landlord the Fleet" is an early painting by James McNeill Wh, created between 1853 and 1855 when the artist was just 19 21 years old. inspired by Charles Dickens'The Pickwick Papers*, depicts a cozy interior scene featuring a shoemaker smoking a pipe, evoking the gritty world of London's Fleet Prison and its memorable character Sam Weller. This work captures Whistler's youthful fascination with literary illustration and realist genre scenes, a stark contrast to his later ethereal nocturnes and tonalist masterpieces. As part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection, gi...