The Reading Public Museum is pleased to announce its latest art exhibition, Whistler & Company: The Etching Revival, which will be on view from May 27 through September 24, 2017 in The Museum’s ground floor Works on Paper Gallery. Expatriate American artist, James Abbot McNeill Whistler (American, 1834 –1903) played an essential role in the etching revival of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and will be the featured among some of his contemporary printmakers. The show includes more than sixty works, with nearly a dozen by Whistler, whose gritty images of the River Thames, views of Venice and Parisian scenes revived, at least in part, the art of etching in the 19th century. Works from Whistler’s ‘Thames Set’ and ‘French Set’ will be featured in the exhibition.

The etching revival of the second half of the 19th century took hold in France, England and the United States. Artists set out to re-establish etching—the art of incising lines with an etching needle into a thin copper plate which was then dipped in an acid bath, inked and pressed into paper with the help of a printing press to create impressions—as an art form that could stand on its own. Inspired by Rembrandt, and old masters, practitioners created remarkable original and expressive compositions that gained popularity with refined collectors and the broader public. Curator of Art, Scott Schweigert notes that “this group of innovative artists was committed to the medium of etching as means of expression on par with painting, but with the spontaneity and freedom of drawing. They helped shape our modern notions about printmaking as an independent medium, and this exhibition sheds light on that aspect of their artistic production.”

Other British, French and American artists who participated in the etching revival will be featured in the exhibition including: Francis Seymour Haden, James McBey, Edwin Edwards, David Young Cameron, Muirhead Bone, Mortimer Menpes, Charles Meryon, Maxime Lalanne, Joseph Pennell, and Frank Duveneck, among others.

All of the works in in the exhibition are drawn from RPM’s permanent collection of works on paper, which numbers more than 10,000.