UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: grolier club

Marchand de Vin, Paris

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(49907)
Number: 438
Date: 1888/1893
Medium: etching
Size: 82 x 201 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 3
Catalogues: K.421; M.429
Impressions taken from this plate  (3)

TECHNIQUE

This is pure etching.

PRINTING

Only three impressions are known, and the third of these was presumably the one acquired by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) annotated ''3rd Proof ' by Whistler (Graphic with a link to impression #K4210102). It was printed in black ink on cream Asian laid paper, as was Graphic with a link to impression #K4210104. Another impression in is black on light-weight fibrous Japanese paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K4210103), which was also used for an impression of Rue de Vannes, Paris [435] (Graphic with a link to impression #K4390103).
Whistler seems to have had some trouble in printing the plate. This rarely happened in Whistler's work, but suggests he was having problems printing in Paris in the 1890s (see Graphic with a link to impression #K4230103, Graphic with a link to impression #K4210103, Graphic with a link to impression #K4360102). These could be due to problems with the printing press, or an assistant, or his own strength.