The Little Putney, No. 1, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, etching

The Little Putney, No. 1

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

1879

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A trompe-l'œil (French, “trick the eye”) still life painting consisting of a stretched canvas, painted around all four sides to resemble a rectangular piece of wood cut from a longer plank. The top and bottom edges have a series of lines painted with a thick impasto to resemble the radial grain of a cut board. At the center of the composition is a dark hollow recess covered with a broken pane of glass held in place by nine tack nails, which contains 14 peanuts, functioning as a makeshift peanut dispenser. Tucked behind the pane of glass at the top of the recess is a white paper card which reads “Try One. / S. NIKTA.” “S. NIKTA” is “Atkins” spelled backwards, probably the name of a friend or patron of the artist.
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