1890
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Gatti's is a 1890 ink by James McNeill Whistler, a Impressionism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This sketch shows a rough, fast-drawn building with a balcony and a few trees below. The lines are loose and shaky, like a quick note rather than a finished drawing. At the bottom, there’s a tiny bench and a few scribbled marks that might be people or objects. The artist used a technique called lithography, which lets them sketch directly onto a stone or metal plate before printing. This sketch feels more like a study than a polished work—almost like a doodle of a café or street corner. Next, look up lithography to see how artists use it to create prints like this one.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom.
See the richer artist page
