James MacNeil Whistler (1834-1903)

MacNeil Whistler, Rotherhithe, 1860 Etching and drypoint.

Between 1863 and 1902 the famous American painter and Etcher james MacNeil Whistler visited the netherlands on several occasions. During is travels in the Netherlands he stayed for a time in Amsterdam,The Hague, Dordrecht, and various towns and villages on the island of Walcheren. In Amsterdam he choose to portray not the familiar landmarks of the city, But rather the picturesque, if somewhat dilapidated, backstreets of the old city centre, often from the vantage point of a boat. These prints, with their often strangely truncated buildings, are suggestive of photographs. At first his work came in for considerable criticism, but before long it was being imitaded by such Dutch artists as Willem Witsen, George Breigtner and Carol Storm van 's gravesande. Like their American colleague, they "took to water", and did their own prints, watercolours, Photographs and Paintings of those city backwaters.