UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Whistler with the White Lock

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1891.15)
Number: 162
Date: 1876/1879
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 118 x 80 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 34
Catalogues: K.172; M.169; W.142
Impressions taken from this plate  (34)

TECHNIQUE

Impression: K1720114
One impression, reproduced above - possibly the first impression because it still prints with burr - was very thoroughly worked over in pen and wash to suggest how the finished drypoint might work (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720114). This was very skilfully done, probably by Whistler himself. It is signed with a butterfly that appears to date from 1878 or 1879 but is not certainly by Whistler - it is a bit too tidy.

PRINTING

Half of all known impressions are in the set of 'Cancelled Plates' although this particular drypoint does not appear to have been actually cancelled, but just left unfinished.
A few impressions can be traced back to Whistler's time. All are printed in black ink. One prints with a rich burr and was worked over in wash, as mentioned above; it is on ivory laid paper with an Arms of Amsterdam watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720114). Two are on wove paper, the first an early impression preceding the main edition of the album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, in 1879 (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720204) and the other also perhaps printed at that time (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720120).
Some of the etchings and drypoints in the surviving sets of the Cancelled Plates are still bound in an album (i.e. Graphic with a link to impression #E010101). They are printed in black ink usually on ivory laid paper, sometimes with a watermark, such as the partial watermark, Strasbourg Lily 'VGZ' (i.e. Graphic with a link to impression #K1720202) or 'Van Gelder' in script (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720206). There was an edition of at least 20 and perhaps about 24 at that time.
Ten years later, in 1889, the copper plate was acquired by H. Wunderlich & Co., New York and printed again in an edition of sixteen, of which seven have been identified. It was printed very carefully and impressions appear stronger than earlier impressions, partly because some of them are on coloured papers.
One that may come from this 1889 edition is on cream Asian laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720103). A number of impressions are on blue or greenish laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720106, Graphic with a link to impression #K1720109), the latter with a partial hunting horn watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720102).
Finally, an impression printed in black ink on grey laid paper with a Pro Patria countermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720108) was sold by H. Wunderlich & Co. together with one from the fully cancelled plate, printed on pale green paper with the Arms of Colbert watermark, probably in the 1930s. They were given by Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971) to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Graphic with a link to impression #K1720111).