Composition

The Tall Bridge, Private Collection

The Tall Bridge, lithograph, first state, The Art Institute, Chicago (2004.534)

It is a study for a lithograph, The Tall Bridge c012. It was drawn on the same lithographic stone as Old Battersea Bridge [M.0700]. However, it was not published.

Technique

The lithographer, Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) said that when Whistler was asked to draw two lithographs for the new magazine Piccadilly in 1878, "he forthwith made two studies of Old Battersea Bridge on brown paper, and brought them to the Wellington Street office, and there and then drew them on a fresh stone. `The long Bridge' and `The Tall Bridge' were at once printed". 1