Speke Shore
Medium
Drypoint in black ink on off-white laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 15.2 × 22.8 cm (6 × 9 in.); Sheet: 21.7 × 33.8 cm (8 9/16 × 13 5/16 in.)
Classification
drypoint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
29630
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler’s *Speke* (1875) captures the subtle beauty of the English coastline in a masterful drypoint print Executed in black ink on off-white laid paper, the plate measures 15.2 × 22.8 cm, with the full sheet at 21.7 × 33.8 cm. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints Drawings department, this work Whistler’s shift toward intimate, atmospheric landscapes during the 1870s, a period when he embraced printmaking as a primary medium alongside his renowned oil paintings. Whistler, an American expatriate in London and a key figure in the Aesthetic movement, prioritized “art fo...
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...