Titles

Few variations on the title have been suggested:

• 'Butcher Shop - Dieppe' (n.d., label). 1
• 'The Butchers Shop' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). 2
• 'The Butcher's Shop' (1980, YMSM). 3

'The Butcher's Shop' is the preferred title.

Description

The Butcher's Shop, Freer Gallery of Art

A shop-front, in horizontal format. The door is in the centre, with two skinned beef carcasses hanging in front, a larger carcass behind them at right, as well as several smaller joints hanging in the shop. Above the shop is a prominent dark red awning, and to left, a large window. A figure in black is emerging from the shop door, to left of the carcasses.

Site

An inscription on the back of the frame reads 'Butcher Shop - Dieppe'. Whistler frequently visited Dieppe, particularly in 1885, but also on several later occasions.

W. R. Sickert, Twilight, York Museums Trust

The Butcher's Shop, Freer Gallery of Art

Twilight (York Museums Trust) by Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) appears to show the same butcher's shop; Wendy Baron suggested they could have been painted side by side, but the details are different (Sickert includes six carcasses, Whistler, three). 4 Sickert's view was taken from further right, looking back at the shop from an angle, where Whistler's is straight on, with the rectangular shop-front parallel to the edges of the panel. Sickert extends the reddish-brown colour of the facade down the right side of the shop, and onto the adjacent building, while Whistler limits it to the awning and beam above the shop, but there is no way to tell which one was an accurate rendering of the facade.

Related subjects by Whistler include the much earlier Boutique de Boucher, Saverne [M.0236], the etching, Butcher's Shop, Sandwich, Kent [320], and lithograph, The Butcher's Dog c166.