The Doorway, One of the “Twelve Etchings,” or the “First Venice Set”
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Description
The Doorway, from Twelve Etchings,
or the First Venice Set
1879–80
Etching and drypoint
Seventh state of seven (Kennedy 188)
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker, 1955/1.124
While Ruskin’s recently published Stones of Venice would have sensitized visitors of the period to appreciate Venice’s gothic past, Whistler tended to ignore these structures in favor of Renaissance buildings such as the Palazzo Gussoni, depicted here. Dense patterning animates the facade while allowing the interior to take on a mysterious character.
The square panes of the transom and arched windows above the door are echoed in the shadowy upper reaches of the interior. This was a dyer’s shop where chairs were also repaired and the pale, regular grid just below the ironwork over the doorway is composed of the legs of chairs suspended from the ceiling. Whistler returned to the motif of doorways and passageways throughout his career and in this period often used this subject to experiment with surface patterns that emphasize the flatness of the page against darker interiors that suggest depth.
Whistler often made significant changes to the states of his plates; here the figures were redrawn and poses altered several times.
Subject Matter:
Whistler discovered "a Venice within Venice" that had never captured the attention of earlier artists. Rather than focus on Venice's grand public spaces, he worked along the back canals, in both pastel and in etching, finding topics of local color and rich detail. This doorway belonged to a chair repair shop. In the first state--and again in this the last state--the woman's stooping gesture is given significance by the cloth in her hand; she is washing out dye in the canal.
Physical Description:
A large ornate waterdoor faces onto a canal. On the threshold near the water, a woman bends down towards the surface of the canal. Behind the doorway stands another figure in the shadows and beyond is another opening to a small square or open-air workspace. The Doorway consists of a large lunette shaped transom light over the door and the portal is flanked on either side by large arched windows. The glazing is all fitted into a fine network of mullions in either square on diamond patterns. The door and windows are each framed by carved pilasters and engaged corinthian capitals. Below the windows are bands of rosettes and other carved ornament that extends to the water level.
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