The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 9, 2025

The Garden

1879–80
(American, 1834–1903)
America
etching and drypoint
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph King 1923.31
Catalogue raisonné: Kennedy 210; MacDonald 194
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This print is among the only ones in James McNeill Whistler's Second Venice Set without a clearly identifiable setting.

Description

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.
  • ?-1923
    Mr. and Mrs. Ralph King, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    1923-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Webb, Sheila, and Cleveland Museum of Art. Paper, the Continuous Thread. Cleveland, OH: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 49-50, no. 42; Mentioned: p. 68
  • Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
    Paper: The Continuous Thread. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 31-October 24, 1982).
    Etchings and Lithographs by Whistler: Gifts and Loans of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph King. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-April 2, 1923).
  • {{cite web|title=The Garden|url=false|author=James McNeill Whistler|year=1879–80|access-date=09 July 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1923.31