The Traghetto, No. 2
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
The Traghetto, No. 2
Etching & Drypoint
1879
An original James Abbott McNeill Whistler Etching & Drypoint print.
1879
Original etching and drypoint printed in dark umber ink on tissue-weight laid Japan paper
Signed in the plate with the butterfly monogram at the left edge.
A superb proof impression of Kennedy’s fifth state of six, showing a warm plate tone throughout and inky plate edges, printed prior to the back of the man at the left of the table and the carafe on the table being outlined in drypoint, this proof apart from the edition of 100 in the definitive state published by the Fine Art Society, London, 1880. One of the plates from the series Venice, Whistler. Twelve Etchings, commonly referred to as the “First Venice Set”.
Catalog: Kennedy 191 v/vi; Mansfield 188; Grolier Club 158; Wedmore 156.
Size Image: 9 3/8 x 11 7/8 inches
Sheet Size: 9 3/8 x 11 7/8 inches
Whistler’s Venetian etchings are one of the greatest achievements of his art. He went to Venice in late 1879, but he had been planning a visit since 1876. His cataclysmic financial state had delayed the trip, however, until a commission, and a check from the Fine Art Society in September 1879 enabled him to go with the purpose of making 12 etchings.
In Venice Whistler continued to explore the themes and variations which had preoccupied him for years, demonstrating the consistency of his formal concerns. While his subjects are attractive and capture the feeling of the city, he was not interested in subject as an end in itself. Upon close examination it appears that his interest lay in the more purely abstract elements of the composition, and that the subject played an increasingly incidental role. This was anticipated in the portrait “arrangements” of the 1870’s, and in the decoration for the “Peacock Room.” In his pamphlet Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room of 1877, Whistler maintained that the peacock motif was only a “means” of carrying out a formal arrangement in gold on blue and blue on gold.
Looked at in this context, the Venice etchings can be divided into groups, each of which explores a similar theme with formal variations, and can be seen as the logical outgrowth of Whistler’s early work in the medium.
Whistler continued to explore the decorative and spatial possibilities of figures in doorways which he had first explored in 1858. This idea was extended the following year to include a succession of doorways and courtyards. In Venice he used the magnificent arched doorways with their cast iron grillwork and mysterious inner spaces to great advantage, as well as the narrow covered passageways which link the calli and often open into canals.
