Signed and annotated ‘imp’ in pencil on the tab.
Literature: F. Wedmore, Whistler's Etchings, A Study and a Catalogue. London, 1899. No.157.
Kennedy 192.
Glasgow 229 III/IV
Provenance: Christie's Sale, Old Master & Modern Prints, 19 September 2007, lot 203.
In 1879 Whistler was declared bankrupt; he had to sell his house in Chelsea and destroy works to keep them from creditors. Such humiliation came after he had been facing huge costs to sue the art critic John Ruskin for libel; a cause that he won, but with little financial reward. The crucial opportunity to escape London was offered to him by the Fine Art Society with the commission of a series of etchings in Venice.
Whistler arrived in Venice in September 1879. He was active there from October 1879 to October 1880 and returned to London the following month.
The Riva dates from 1880 and represents the Riva degli Schiavoni, seen from the Casa Jankowitz, with the dome of San Marco on the far right (in reverse). A similar view dating from the same period is Riva, No. 2 [Glasgow 230]. It was published in 1880 as part of the set Venice, a Series of Twelve Etchings, known also as the First Venice Set. Impressions were printed over many years, the plate being finally cancelled in 1889.
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