1858
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
The Unsafe Tenement is a 1858 ink by James McNeill Whistler, a Impressionism work, depicting Farmhouse, held at National Gallery of Art.
This etching shows a run-down brick building with sagging shutters and crooked windows. The lines are rough and scratchy, like quick pencil marks. Whistler’s work often feels loose, but here the wear on the building looks extra real. The artist made this while living in London. At the time, poor neighborhoods were changing fast, and artists noticed the contrasts between old and new. Look for more of his prints at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
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.
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