Long Shore Men (45) 1859 RMG PU8035

Long Shore Men (45) 1859
A drypoint etching of a group of four men gathered around a table in a pub. The men wear caps, and two of them smoke pipes. A woman and child sit at the end of the table on the right. The empty foreground draws the viewer into an interaction with the man at centre, leaning forward with his hand to his chest and a mug of beer to his left. Longshoremen were labourers employed on the wharves for loading and unloading vessels.
This print was etched in 1859, the same year as several of the etchings in 'A Series of Sixteen Etchings on the Thames' or ‘The Thames Set’, produced by Whistler and published in 1871. Whistler etched the plates for these prints after he moved to Wapping in 1859. He worked directly with his subjects and by doing so, succeeded in highlighting the existence of a working-class maritime community in the city of London. The work is signed and dated 'Whistler 1859', lower right.

Long Shore Men (45) 1859