The Mustard Merchant
Original Language TitleLa Marchande de Moutarde
Series TitleTwelve Etchings from Nature
Artist
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
(American, 1834 - 1903)
Date1858
MediumEtching on paper
DimensionsOverall: 6 1/8 × 3 7/16 inches (15.57 × 8.69 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Frances M. Logan
Object number53-51/5
On View
Not on viewCollections
Gallery LabelLa Marchande de Moutarde is one of Whistler’s most important early etchings. It introduced him to the European art world when it was shown at the Paris Salon in 1859. This glimpse through a narrow doorway to a woman sealing pots of homemade mustard (a specialty in Cologne) is made of delicate linear patterns. The variety of textures suggested by the lines and the tight composition are characteristic of Whistler’s early etchings.
Whistler based this etching on a pencil sketch made in Cologne, Germany, during a walking tour through France and the Rhineland in 1858. It is part of the series Twelve Etchings from Nature, also known as the French Set.
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