UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Hôtel de Ville, Loches

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1889.14)
Number: 412
Date: 1888
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 270 x 165 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 5
Catalogues: K.384; M.384
Impressions taken from this plate  (5)

TECHNIQUE

This plate was executed in etching, augmented with drypoint shading in the second state. The scene is vignetted, with empty space at right and at the bottom. There is a huge amount of detail in the rest of the composition, with both the figures and architecture drawn with a variety of short, broken lines, including irregular patches of shading to indicate shadows and texture. The buildings are drawn with fussy - but selective - detail. Most of the figures were drawn with short, expressive lines (curves, hooks, angular lines) without shading.

PRINTING

The '1st. Proof' of Hotel de Ville, Loches was printed in black ink on off-white laid paper with 'GR' countermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K3840104). A second state sold by Whistler in March 1889 is in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper with a 'PRO PATRIA' watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K3840102). Other impressions of the second state were in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper (i.e. Graphic with a link to impression #K3840105, Graphic with a link to impression #K3840106) and black on buff 'antique' (pre-1800) laid paper with an 'HK' countermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K3840103). The plate was usually printed with a little pale tone. All impressions are trimmed to the platemark and signed on a tab with Whistler's butterfly and 'imp.' to show that he printed them.