The Unsafe Tenement (The Old Farm)
[1858] later printing
Medium
Etching; fourth state of four (Glasgow); printed in black ink on medium weight tan antique laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 6 1/4 × 8 7/8 in. (15.8 × 22.6 cm) Sheet: 7 7/8 × 10 13/16 in. (20 × 27.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Julia H. Manges, in memory of her husband, Dr. Morris Manges, 1960
Accession Number
60.598.30
Tags
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler’s *The Unsafe Tenement ( Old Farm)*, an etching from 1858 with a later printing, captures the gritty underbelly of mid-19th-century London Created during Whistler’s early career, when he immersed himself in the city’s working-class neighborhoods along the Thames, this belongs to his influential “Thames Set” series. As a master of the Etching Revival movement, Whistler documented urban poverty with a keen eye for atmospheric detail, blending realism and subtle artistry. In this fourth state of four—part of the Glasgow catalog—this black-ink etching on tan antique laid pa...
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...