UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: boston museum

The Piano

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1904.58)
Number: 144
Date: 1875-1877
Medium: drypoint and open bite
Size: 236 x 160 mm
Signed: butterfly at left (3-final)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 7
Known impressions: 26
Catalogues: K.141; M.139; W.117
Impressions taken from this plate  (26)
Etching: PK141_01 (plate)
Recto, above; verso, below:
Etching: PK141_02 (plate)
The copper plate bears the maker's oval stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' It is close in size to two figure studies - Tillie: A Model [113] and Miss Alexander [117] - and two scenes - The Beach, Hastings [150] and London Bridge [172].
The copper plate was cancelled with crossed diagonal lines. It was probably among plates bought at Whistler's bankruptcy sale by the Fine Art Society, London. It was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879.
The plate was probably among those acquired in exchange for lithographs from Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). 10 The plate was given by Whistler's sister-in-law Miss Philip to the University of Glasgow in 1935.

10: Note by R. Birnie Philip, inserted in the album, Hunterian Art Gallery.