This is probably the first etching Whistler made of the Thames. It shows an area undergoing dramatic change.
The bridge was scheduled to be demolished the following year, and the mud banks to be replaced by the new embankment.
Visible on the north bank of the river (though reversed by the process of printing the etching) are the new Houses of Parliament,
almost completed and much admired internationally.
The clock tower is still surrounded by scaffolding as its great bell, Big Ben, was hoisted into place.
James McNeill Whistler
Old Westminster Bridge 1859
Etching on paper.
Lent by the SP Avery Collection, Miriam and Ira D Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, the New York Public Library,
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Monet came to London in 1870, to avoid being conscripted to fight in the Franco-Prussian war.
He painted three, misty views of the Thames which seem to build on the achievements of some of
Whistler's early Thames paintings.
He chose a very modern part of London, with the new Victoria Embankment on the right, the Houses
of Parliament and the newly-built Westminster Bridge in the distance.
But at the same time he was also concerned with the unifying effects of the light and atmosphere
of the mists in London, and the way they seem to dissolve solid forms.
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Claude Monet
The Thames Below Westminster 1871
Oil on canvas.
Lent by the National Gallery, London
Whistler described this picture as 'a very warm summer night on the Thames - lovely in colour they say .- view of the river from the Houses of Parliament'. The view looks across the river to Lambeth from Westminster Bridge. The dark block of colour on the right represents the Houses of Parliament, one of London's most familiar landmarks, but here almost indistinguishable.
Whistler deliberately used musical terms in his titles to draw parallels between painting and music. He wrote that 'A nocturne is an arrangement of line, form and colour first'.
James McNeill Whistler
Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Westminster Bridge 1871-2
Oil on canvas.
Lent by the Burrell Collection, Glasgow
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