Accession Number
1954/1.398

Title
The Cock and the Pump

Artist(s)
James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1887

Medium & Support
etching, printed in warm black ink on laid paper, trimmed to platemark

Dimensions
8 5/8 in. x 5 1/2 in. ( 21.9 cm x 14 cm )

Credit Line
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker

Subject matter
This scene of a village square is of the Cattle Market in Sandwich, Kent. Whistler's interest in shopfronts and figures in urban settings is here converted to a village setting with deep perspectival recession, the group of girls at the lower left completing the diagonal angle of the street and bringing that diagonal to the front of the composition.

Physical Description
An open public space dominates the foreground of the image. In that space are several groups of children, particularly at the lower left of the image, a rooster at the lower right, and a water pump at the far side of the square just before the fence. Beyond is a street that recedes into the distance; on either side of the street are picturesque older buildings that face onto the square with banks of windows, overhangs, and steeply pitched rooflines.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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Keywords
buildings
children (people by age group)
cocks
fences
genre (visual works)
pumping stations
roads
roosters (birds)
standing
townscapes (representations)