American Art Collaborative

Old Battersea Bridge, the last surviving wooden bridge crossing the Thames in London, frequently appears in Whistler’s prints. Appealing to a market for scenes of Old London, Whistler hoped Old Battersea Bridge would sell well. In addition to relying on the picturesque tradition in Western art, Whistler was also greatly influenced by the aesthetics of the Japanese woodblock prints he had been collecting since the early 1860s. In this etching, he pulled directly from the work of the Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige, who emphasized the decorative qualities of bridges. The graceful arc of Old Battersea Bridge, the low vantage point from which it is depicted, and the cropping of both its ends were design elements Whistler incorporated from Japanese prints.