UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: kupferstichkabinett berlin

Newspaper-Stall, Rue de Seine

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46650)
Number: 474
Date: 1893
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 81 x 200 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 13
Catalogues: K.432; M.426
Impressions taken from this plate  (13)

PUBLICATION

Newspaper-stall, Rue de Seine was not published.

EXHIBITIONS

It was probably the etching exhibited by the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, during Whistler's presidency, in 1899. 12 It was also possibly shown in the following year in the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago as 'Rue de Seine', lent by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (Graphic with a link to impression #K4320103), although that might have been Antony's Print Shop, Rue de Seine [477]. 13

Following Whistler's death, Freer's impression was shown in the comprehensive Memorial show at the Grolier Club, New York, 1904, and an impression was lent by John Charles Sigismund Day (1826-1908) to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905. 14

12: London ISSPG 1899 (cat. no. 432). See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

13: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 268).

14: New York 1904a (cat. no. 349); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 379).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Few sales of Newspaper-stall, Rue de Seine are actually recorded in Whistler's life time. However, it is probable that Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) bought his impression of the first state at an early date (Graphic with a link to impression #K4320101) and it is now in the British Museum. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought another impression of the first state from the Company of the Butterfly (Whistler's short-lived business outlet) in London (Graphic with a link to impression #K4320103). One was bequeathed by Whistler to his sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who gave it to the University of Glasgow (Graphic with a link to impression #K4320104).
It is possible that an impression of the second state, which was bequeathed by Charles Deering (1852-1927) to the Art Institute of Chicago, was acquired in Whistler's lifetime - it is among several impressions trimmed to the platemark, and having a tab with no signature (Graphic with a link to impression #K4320202). However, it is more likely that the second state was printed around 1900, possibly by Francis Short (1857-1945), and sold after Whistler's death, either by Short or by Miss Birnie Philip, who sold duplicates from the Whistler estate through Colnaghi's. The earliest recorded sale is in 1907, when an impression of the second state was bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum (Graphic with a link to impression #K4320203). In the following year, 1908, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. sold one (on an unusual light blue paper) to the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, for £30.0.0 (Graphic with a link to impression #K4320205).