Fish-Shop, Venice

In his etching Fish-Shop, Venice, James McNeill Whistler depicted a typical Venetian façade incorporating a trio of different architectural openings. At right, a man sits against a railing in a fish shop, its interior open to the canal to facilitate deliveries. At the center, another man, apparently engaged in setting goods on a ledge, stands on the steps of a sottoportico (one of the public passageways cut through Venice's buildings) that leads to a street beyond; a woman and other figures cluster in its shadows. A dense network of lines renders the tunnel's dark walls and ceiling, from which hangs a lantern for evening illumination. At the far left, two heads peer from the privacy of a darkened window overlooking the canal. As in his etching San Biagio (TF 1992.157), Whistler transformed this ordinary scene into a purely aesthetic composition by emphasizing the geometric forms and rich textures of the old vernacular building. The artist's stylized butterfly signature appears on the wall to the left of the passageway as part of the etched image.

One of the fifty etchings Whistler created during his Venice sojourn, between September 1879 and November 1880, this rare print was not included in either of his two "Venice Set" portfolios published in 1880 and 1886. Throughout his career, Whistler created compositions from modest shop fronts he saw in Venice, London, Amsterdam, and other European settings, as seen for example in his etching Fruit Stall (TF 1992.153), oil paintings Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop (TF 1992.147) and A Chelsea Shop (TF 1992.148), and watercolors Flower Shop, Dieppe (TF 1994.2) and A Brittany Shop with Shuttered Windows (TF 1992.146).

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