Scene on the Mersey

Scene on the Mersey

James McNeill Whistler

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Here, Whistler’s brushwork is wild and full of life. He used broad strokes to saturate the paper with free washes, then detailed the lighthouse and the figures in gouache with a fine point after the washes had dried. The technique relates to works dated 1883–84, though Whistler probably visited the Mersey—a river in northwest England—in the early 1870s while he was at Speke Hall (home of his patrons Mr. and Mrs. Frederick R. Leyland) and again in 1891 while he was hanging an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Scene on the MerseyScene on the MerseyScene on the MerseyScene on the MerseyScene on the Mersey

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.