{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O653882"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O653882/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PJ3152/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PJ3152/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PJ3152","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011FC7232","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JP7661","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O653882/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O653882","accessionNumber":"19787","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Limehouse","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"The Thames Set","type":"series title"},{"title":"Curtis Gin","type":"alternative title"}],"summaryDescription":"During his formative years in Paris in the 1850s, Whistler was influenced by the directive of poet and theorist Charles Baudelaire that artists should take subjects from 'modern life' and seek a new beauty in the teeming cities. Whistler's first major suite of prints, 'Twelve Etchings from Nature' was produced from his travels in northern France, Luxembourg and Rhindeland in 1858. His his 'French Set' brought critical acclaim but disappointing sales. Seeking more generous patrons, he moved to London in 1859. Initially under the influence of his brother-in-law Francis Seymour Haden, a pioneer of the 'etching revival', he began a series of superbly observed and finely detailed views of the River Thames with its shipping, thriving wharves and picturesque characters.\n\nThis etching belongs to a group of prints purchased by the museum from Francis Seymour Haden on 1 January 1861, making them the earliest prints by Whistler to enter a public museum collection (accession numbers 19787-19802). At the time they were made ","physicalDescription":"View of the Thames and warehouses at Limehouse. In the right foreground, cargo being unloaded from a barge into a warehouse on the quayside. Mooring posts to the left with ships and a river view beyond. Signed and dated by the artist in the plate","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Whistler, James Abbott McNeill","id":"A8983"},"association":{"text":"printmaker","id":"AAT25164"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Delâtre, Auguste","id":"A4334"},"association":{"text":"printer (person)","id":"AAT25732"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"}],"techniques":[{"text":"etching (printing process)","id":"AAT53241"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Etching on 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1859.’","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed and dated by the artist in plate bottom right on the side of the boat."}],"objectHistory":"This is one of a group of 16 prints that were sold to the V&A (South Kensington Museum) by Francis Seymour Haden, the artist's brother-in-law, in 1861. The suite of prints were purchased for £10.10.10.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"'Limehouse', etching by James McNeill Whistler, second state of six, first titled 'Curtin Gin', etched 1859, printed London 1859-60, later published in the <i>Thames Set</i> in 1871","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Wedmore, Frederick. <u>Whistler's Etchings, A Study and a Catalogue</u>. London: Colnaghi & Co, 1899. No.37, 1st state."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Kennedy, Edward G. <u>The Etched Work of Whistler</u>. San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1978. No.40, 2nd state."}],"production":"'Curtis Gin' was the title given in the museum register when the print first acquired, named after a warehouse sign in the centre of the composition (the 'n' reversed). It was not Whistler's preferred title, later publishing this print under the title 'Limehouse' in the <i>Thames Set. </i>It is probable that Francis Seymour Haden gave the title 'Curtis gin', when he sold the print to the museum in 1861.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"River Thames","id":"x31213"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Haden, (Francis) Seymour (Sir)","id":"A34286"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"rivers","id":"AAT8707"},{"text":"ships","id":"AAT82981"},{"text":"boats","id":"AAT178749"},{"text":"marines (visual works)","id":"AAT235692"},{"text":"docks","id":"AAT120801"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"commerce","id":"x39960"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["19787"],"accessionNumberNum":"19787","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-11","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}