View of a Coast Line (from Sketches on the Coast Survey Plate)
1854–55
Medium
Etching; proof impression of the only state (Glasgow 1); this is a fragment cut from the upper portion of "Sketches on the Coast Survey Plate" (Kennedy no. 1) by Whistler and mounted on a board with six other related fragments. Cited by Glasgow as the earliest known impression.
Dimensions
Sheet: 5/8 × 4 1/4 in. (1.6 × 10.8 cm) (fragment cut from the upper portion of "Sketches on the Coast Survey Plate")
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Margaret C. Buell, Helen L. King, and Sybil A. Walk, 1970
Accession Number
1970.121.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the mid-1850s, a young James McNeill Wh, then in his early twenties and studying in Paris, created his very first etching plate: *Sketches on the Coast Plate*. This tiny fragment, *View of a Coast Line cut from the upper portion of plate, captures a delicate seascape with precise lines evoking the rugged American coastline—likely inspired by surveys Whistler encountered during his brief U.S. Navy stint. As the earliest known proof impression (Glasgow 1), it offers a rare glimpse into the artist's nascent experimentation with printmaking, before his fame for tonal harmonies and Aestheticism....
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...