Artwork Page for The Storm

Details / Information for The Storm

The Storm

1861

James McNeill Whistler

(American, 1834–1903)
Culture
America
Medium
drypoint
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph King 1924.47
Catalogue raisonné
Kennedy 81
State
only state
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

During the summer of 1861, the artist Matthew White Ridley introduced Whistler to Edwin Edwards, a lawyer who had left his profession to devote himself to his avocations of art and music. Edwards used a covered boat for etching expeditions on the river---no doubt inspired by "le botin," the covered boat from which the Barbizon artist Charles Daubigny sketched the Seine (see The Boat in Conflans, elsewhere in the exhibition). In June 1861, despite persistent rain, Edwards invited Ridley and Whistler to take the boat on a camping trip to Maple Durham. On this voyage, Whistler made several drypoints, including The Storm, in which Ridley battles against driving wind and rain with the river foaming in the background.
A horizontally oriented drypoint on off-white paper features a landscape under a dark sky. Thick, dark, diagonal lines sweep across the upper half. In the lower left, a hunched figure with head tucked down leans rightward across a field. The middle ground contains a low horizon with sparse, wiry vegetation. A handwritten signature, Whistler, and the date 1861 appear in the bottom right corner. A thin plate mark frames the image.

The Storm

1861

James McNeill Whistler

(American, 1834–1903)
America

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