Cleveland Museum of Art

The Garden

James McNeill Whistler

Date

1879–80

Medium

etching and drypoint

Culture

America

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Part of an expatriate community in Venice, James McNeill Whistler focused on the city’s architectural details in the prints, drawings, and paintings that he made during a year spent living there. This etching presents a private garden from the perspective of one of the city’s distinctive canals. Seen through an open doorway, the view, offers a voyeuristic glimpse of its inhabitants’ lives. Situated outside and looking into a lush garden, the viewer is placed in the artist’s position, able to feel his excitement as an outsider exploring a new but historied place. This print is among the only ones in James McNeill Whistler's Second Venice Set without a clearly identifiable setting.

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