1872, James McNeill Whistler, Variations in Pink and Grey: Chelsea -- National Museum of Asian Art (Washington)
From the museum label: Between 1864 and 1874, London razed a host of historic buildings to create the Victoria, Albert, and Chelsea Embankments to house the city's new sewer system. Construction altered the topography of the city, claiming much of the riverbank for public gardens and new commercial and residential structures. In Whistler's painting, wooden fences -- abstracted to resemble a Japanese folding screen -- hide the chaos of urban renewal from the elegant figures promenading in the foreground.
Link to other paintings from the exhibition Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change.
Link to other Whistler paintings.
1872, James McNeill Whistler, Variations in Pink and Grey: Chelsea -- National Museum of Asian Art (Washington)
From the museum label: Between 1864 and 1874, London razed a host of historic buildings to create the Victoria, Albert, and Chelsea Embankments to house the city's new sewer system. Construction altered the topography of the city, claiming much of the riverbank for public gardens and new commercial and residential structures. In Whistler's painting, wooden fences -- abstracted to resemble a Japanese folding screen -- hide the chaos of urban renewal from the elegant figures promenading in the foreground.
Link to other paintings from the exhibition Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change.
Link to other Whistler paintings.