UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Château pres Paimpol

Impression: Whistler Etchings Project
Whistler Etchings Project
(-)
Number: 472
Date: 1893/1900
Medium: etching
Size: 140 x 94 mm
Signed: butterfly to right of centre
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 1
Catalogues: K.-; M.-; T.-; W.-
Impressions taken from this plate  (1)
Chateau pres Paimpol may date from September 1893, when Whistler and his wife visited the town, staying in the Hotel Gicquel. Whistler described Paimpol in September as 'forlorn'. 1 He complained to Joseph Pennell (1860-1926):

1: Whistler to D.C. Thomson, [1/8 September 1893], GUW #08250.

'Here we are! - and where are we indeed! -
Well we shall be out of there directly - and glad of it too - This country business has been queer enough this time - The fact of it is I suppose that "Nature" has gone back on me altogether - and taken it out of me for my exposure of her "foolish sunsets" - Certainly her conduct during these last six weeks has been "sich" 2 , that I am heartily ashamed of her and have no desire to be left alone with her either in the fields or by the sea side, for a long time to come! -' 3

2: Meaning 'such'.

3: Whistler to J. Pennell, [1/8 September 1893], GUW #07773.

However, it may have been etched on a later, unrecorded visit. The butterfly signature is of a form that could date from later in the 1890s.