Wapping (1860-64)
James McNeil Whistler (1834-1903) took some four years to complete what had been one of his most ambitious paintings to date. The scene has been described as in a ‘grog shop near Blackwall’, featuring a ‘drunken sailor and his Molly’. The River Thames behind is bustling with barge traffic. The ‘Molly’ appears to be only half-interested in her companion’s tales. I do not know who was the model for the man - Whistler wrote that he wanted him to be vaguely Spanish in appearance. But I do recognise the ‘Molly’ to be Whistler’s own longtime model and muse, Irish-born Joanna Hiffernan (1842-1886).
Wapping (1860-64)
James McNeil Whistler (1834-1903) took some four years to complete what had been one of his most ambitious paintings to date. The scene has been described as in a ‘grog shop near Blackwall’, featuring a ‘drunken sailor and his Molly’. The River Thames behind is bustling with barge traffic. The ‘Molly’ appears to be only half-interested in her companion’s tales. I do not know who was the model for the man - Whistler wrote that he wanted him to be vaguely Spanish in appearance. But I do recognise the ‘Molly’ to be Whistler’s own longtime model and muse, Irish-born Joanna Hiffernan (1842-1886).