Bead Stringers

Bead Stringers presents a typical scene observed by James McNeill Whistler as he moved about Venice seeking subjects for his art: bead stringers gathered for work and conversation at a doorway opening directly onto a pedestrian street. Suggestive in its spontaneity of an on-the-spot sketch, this etching pictures three seated figures: a young woman stringing beads in the sunlight outside, a mother with her baby on her lap framed by the doorway, and an older bead-stringer placed just inside the darkened interior evoked by a concentrated network of lines surrounding a shuttered window. Setting the woman at the left apart from her companions, Whistler deftly outlined her profile, focusing on her kerchiefed head, her upraised left hand poised in thread-pulling, her dress, and a gathered hem revealing her slender ankle. He was less interested in her face, however, and neglected to detail the strand she was stringing, leaving the viewer to imagine it in the blank space. Whistler placed his butterfly monogram signature prominently at the left edge of the door frame; above the doorway, the numerical address "37" is faintly visible. This glimpse of a modest cottage industry alludes to Venice's thriving glassmaking production, which still today creates dazzling beads for jewelry.

This domestic scene of women's work contrasts with another typical street image, Beggars (TF 1994.8), which also shows Venetian women. These etchings were among the fifty Whistler made during his stay in Venice from September 1879 to November 1880 to fulfill a commission from London's Fine Art Society. Bead Stringers was published in 1886 in "A Set of Twenty-six Etchings," known as the "Second Venice Set."

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Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001. [exh. cat.]

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