UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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The Canal, Ostend

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46977)
Number: 352
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 67 x 179 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 4
Catalogues: K.353; M.350; W.248
Impressions taken from this plate  (4)
The Canal, Ostend probably dates from September 1887 although it could date from the previous year. The butterfly signature is consistent with this date. It was first sold in November 1887. 1

1: Whistler to T. McLean, 17 November 1887, GUW #13016.

There is no record of a trip to Ostend in 1886 except for a newspaper, which stated that he had been working in Ostend during the summer of 1886:
'Ostend has been the scene of Mr. Whistler's summer tasks. He has etched and sketched the busy stir of life on the Digue and in the Kursaal. There are under a dozen etchings, besides the two nocturnes [Petite Bonne à la porte d'une auberge [y367]] in oil for the coming show in Suffolk-street. A limited number only of the plates will be issued from the Fulham studio press, for in this instance Mr. Whistler will be his own pressman.' 2

2: Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, 29 October 1886.

Etchings of Ostend include Fish Women, Ostend [349], Market Place, Ostend [350], Fishing Quay, Ostend [351], and The Beach, Ostend [353].