The Whitesmiths, Impasse des Carmélites
Medium
lithograph in black on laid paper
Dimensions
image: 21.9 × 16.3 cm (8 5/8 × 6 7/16 in.) sheet: 33.5 × 23.7 cm (13 3/16 × 9 5/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.8713
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler’s *The Whitesmiths,asse des Carmélites (1894) invites visitors into a narrow Parisian alleyway alive with the quiet industry of tinsmiths—artisans who polished tin and other white metals. Created as a lithograph in black ink on laid paper, this print measures just 21.9 × 16.3 cm for the image, capturing the scene with Whistler’s signature subtlety and atmospheric depth. Part of the National Gallery of Art’s Rosen Collection, it exemplifies his late-career fascination with urban vignettes. Whistler, the American-born expatriate renowned for his Aestheticist principles an...
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...