Titles

Whistler's original title is not known; only one title is known:

• 'A Shop' (1960, Arts Council). 1
• 'A Shop' (1980, YMSM). 2

Description

A horizontal panel, showing a shop front, painted parallel to the margins of the panel. At left and right are doors, and to left of centre an open door in which a bearded man stands smoking a pipe. The small-paned windows (two panes wide at left, four at right) are dark, with bonneted heads seated inside the window at right. Two toddlers play on the pavement at left, and an older boy peers into the window at far right.

Site

St Ives has been suggested as the site, but it is unlikely that the work dates from as early as 1883/1884. Dieppe has also been suggested, but it could equally have been painted in London or Paris.

Comments

The Hunterian website commented:

'During the last two decades of his life, Whistler painted a series of unassuming shop fronts. The subdued light and the shallow foreground create the effect of a flattened two-dimensional composition. Combined with the undistinguished architecture, a framework for almost abstract composition based on tonal variations is created within this type of work. ' 3