JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER PRINTS

[31] The Adam and Eve, Old Chelsea, 1878
Etching and drypoint, printed in black ink on thin Japan paper, in
the third (final) state, from the edition of 100 or more published by
Hogarth & Son, 1879
7 x 11 15/16 inches (17.5 x 30.2 cm)
sheet 8 3/4 x 13 7/8 inches (22.2 x 33.2 cm)
Provenance: lettered in pencil on the verso VAT and G
(not in Lugt)
Reference: Kennedy 175; Glasgow 182
Whistler based this view of the Chelsea bank of the
Thames showing the Adam and Eve public house (the
third building from the right with three large multipaned
square windows and a sign in front reading “THE
ADAM AND EVE-/Wine & Spirit Establ”) on an earlier
photograph of the scene by James Hedderly titled Duke
Street House Backing on the River. For by the time Whistler
made this print, the old waterfront pub had already been
demolished to make way for the Chelsea Embankment.
Whistler altered some of the details in his etching, not
least the name of the tavern, which does not appear on
the balcony in the photograph. However, as the Glasgow
catalogue notes, he might also have been influenced here
by other views of the subject made by his contemporaries
Edwin Edwards and Walter Greaves. The print was published
in this edition in 1879 by Messrs Hogarth & Son.
Lochan notes that Whistler himself understood
this print “as a transitional work in the evolution from
the realist style of the Thames etchings of 1859 to the
“impressionist” style of the Venice etchings of 1879–80 …
In The Adam and Eve, Old Chelsea, Whistler’s concern was
not so much to express the physical nature of the structure
but to create a feeling of air and atmosphere, and a
composition based on oriental principles of balance and
placement. In this work the eye is no longer drawn to a
specific area of the composition; instead it is drawn to different
areas wherever details congregate. By drawing only
the shadow and the light within the shadow, Whistler created
a new sense of aerial perspective which is not found
in the etchings of 1859” (p.178).
This is a fine impression of the final state of the
print, with touches of burr seen especially on the boats
and sails at the left and on the crumbling porch of the
Adam and Eve. In many impressions in this edition, the
details have become less readable; however, in this one,
perhaps due to the very thin paper, all the elements are
vibrantly printed.
46 london and the thames