The Long Balcony (Paris Windows, The Long Balcony)
Medium
Transfer lithograph; second state of two (Chicago): printed in black ink on heavyweight cream wove Japanese vellum
Dimensions
Image: 8 1/16 × 6 1/4 in. (20.4 × 15.8 cm) Sheet: 16 1/4 x 12 7/8 in. (41.3 x 32.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Paul F. Walter, 1984
Accession Number
1984.1119.10
Tags
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler, renowned American-born artist celebrated for his Aestheticist principles of "art for art's," captured the elegant rhythms of Parisian architecture in *The Long Balcony ( Windows, The Long Bal)*, a transfer lithograph from 1894. This intimate print, the second state of two from the Chicago edition, depicts row of slender balcony windows stretching across a facade, rendered in soft black ink on luxurious heavyweight cream wove Japanese vellum. Measuring just 8 1/16 × 6 1/4 inches for the image, it exemplifies Whistler's late-career fascination with urban vignettes, evokin...
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...