Description:
street with row of houses; dark sky
Label Text:
Drawn and etched during Whistler’s travels through eastern France and western Germany in 1858, Street at Saverne was included in the series of twelve prints popularly referred to as the French Set. This is Whistler’s first etching of a street scene. Here, the dramatic light and dark contrasts, tunnel-like composition, and apparitional shadows bring an unsettling intensity to what might otherwise be a quaint, picturesque image. Street at Saverne is also Whistler’s first nocturnal scene. By applying ink selectively to the surface of the copper plate, not just in the etched grooves, Whistler achieved the rich tones that give the scene its shadowy, velveteen darkness.
The choice of an urban nighttime scene reflects a singular change in urban planning in the mid-nineteenth century: the introduction of street lamps to European cities. Street lamps transformed nocturnal views, both in terms of the lived experience of cities at night and the possibilities for artistic representation. By reinforcing the mystery of the street seen by lamplight, both ominous and beautiful, Whistler depicts the ghostly uncertainty of his increasingly modern, industrial world.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1969.30 |
