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The Temple

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1917.468)
Number: 245
Date: 1880/1881
Medium: etching
Size: 102 x 154 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Second Venice Set', 1886
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 25
Catalogues: K.234; M.231; W.170
Impressions taken from this plate  (25)

TECHNIQUE

The Temple is a straightforward etching, but Whistler did bite the copper plate in two stages. In order to make the houses to the right of centre appear to recede, he removed the plate from the acid bath, 'stopped out' (protected from further biting) the lines on that section of the plate by covering them with varnish, and then returned the plate to the acid to deepen and increase the strength of the other lines.

PRINTING

The Temple was published with A Set of Twenty-six Etchings (the 'Second Venice Set') in 1886. A selection of Whistler's copper plates, including this etching, was printed by Émile Frédéric Salmon (1840-1913) in preparation for publication (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340110). However, Whistler then decided to print the set himself.
There are numerous dockets, receipts and lists recording the printing and delivery of the edition. Two impressions of The Temple were delivered on 2 April, single impressions on 31 July and 25 August, four on 6 October 1886, and twenty-three on 15 January 1887, making a total of 31. 7

7: Whistler to W. Dowdeswell, [16 July 1887], GUW #08717.

Impressions of The Temple were printed in brown ink on ivory laid paper, one with the Strasbourg Lily and 'LVG' watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340102); another with 'IV' countermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340106); two slightly pinkish in tone (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340105, Graphic with a link to impression #K2340112); and one on a light-weight, possibly Asian paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340107). Several are in brown ink on cream laid papers (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340113, Graphic with a link to impression #K2340116, Graphic with a link to impression #K2340120, Graphic with a link to impression #K2340122) and a few in black ink on ivory Asian laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340103) and ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340114).
One cancelled impression is in dark brown ink on an ivory laid light-weight western paper, possibly faux-Asian (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340201); and two in black ink on ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2340202, Graphic with a link to impression #K2340203) the latter with the 'Marlowe' watermark.