1. Glazer, Jacobson, McCarthy, Roeder, wall label, 2019:
Whistler was fascinated by street scenes throughout his career, from his early etchings and watercolors of the quiet village of Saverne in the Rhineland, to a busy flower market in northern France, and on to the children in his London neighborhood.
These scenes not only appealed to Victorian critics and art collectors, but they also provided subtle allusions to the social and economic realities of the day. In Chelsea Children, a child looks longingly into a shop window advertising stewed eels, an inexpensive meal favored by the poor. Like most of Whistler's street scenes, Chelsea Children is painted on hot-pressed paper. Its smooth surface allowed the artist to use delicate brushstrokes for greater detail.
2. Susan Hobbs, 1978:
Whistler painted many views of shopfronts, both in oil and in watercolor. He particularly enjoyed contrasting the geometrical quality of the windows with small, sprightly figures.
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