St. James's Street--June 1878

St. James's Street--June 1878

James McNeill Whistler

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Whistler's busy urban image focuses on a central London thoroughfare that connects Pall Mall and Piccadilly. The view was taken from the terrace of what was then the Albermarle Hotel on Piccadilly, looking downhill towards St. James's Palace, a complex of Tudor buildings that gave the street and surrounding district their names. In the foreground a policeman stands, perhaps directing traffic, near awnings that shield shopfronts. Based on a slightly earlier etching by Whistler (see 17.3.74), this lithograph reverses the image to produce a correctly oriented view. It was published by Thomas Gibson Bowles (1842–1922) in his British weekly magazine "Vanity Fair" on July, 2 1878 as "St. James's Street—June, 1878". Today the street is home to several private clubs, including White's, Boodle's and Brooks's.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

St. James's Street--June 1878St. James's Street--June 1878St. James's Street--June 1878St. James's Street--June 1878St. James's Street--June 1878

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.