Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

Home > Catalogue > Browse > A Shop with a Balcony <<   >>

A Shop with a Balcony

Technique

A Shop with a Balcony, The Hunterian
A Shop with a Balcony, The Hunterian

The composition was first drawn in graphite pencil on the grey primed panel. The undercoat was applied with noticeable vertical strokes, which accentuate the vertical structure of the building. Thin tints of colour were applied sparingly, leaving areas of grey undercoat showing. The precision of the architecture is softened by the blurred edges of the thinly tinted areas of colour, and by a number of figures cutting across the outlines. Some of these (the woman and child on the balcony in particular) were painted carefully with spots from a small rounded brush. The colours are warm shades of flesh-pink and cream, and reddish browns, glowing in contrast to the grey undercoat.

Frame

A Shop with a Balcony, The Hunterian
A Shop with a Balcony, The Hunterian
A Shop with a Balcony, frame detail
A Shop with a Balcony, frame detail

Flat Whistler frame. 1 Size: 45.5 x 37.4 x 3.0 cm.

Notes:

1: Dr S. L. Parkerson Day, Report on frames, 2017. See also Parkerson 2007 [more].

Last updated: 22nd October 2020 by Margaret