UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Little Pool

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.320)
Number: 79
Date: 1861
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 104 x 127 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.' at right centre
Inscribed: '1861 -' at lower left (1-8); 'The Works of James Whistler : Etchings and Dry Points, are on View at E. Thomas' Publisher. / 39. Old Bond Street.' across the bottom (1-8); erased (9)
Set/Publication: 'Thames Set', 1871
No. of States: 9
Known impressions: 76
Catalogues: K.74; M.73; T.48; W.72
Impressions taken from this plate  (76)
The Little Pool is dated '1861' on the copper plate. One impression was annotated by Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876), who was present at the scene, and he gave the date as 'March 1861' (Graphic with a link to impression #K0740103).
It is one of a number of Thames views etched in 1861, including Vauxhall Bridge [75], Millbank [78], Westminster Bridge in Progress [77], Battersea Dawn (Cadogan Pier) [95] and Old Hungerford Bridge [76]. Four 1861 etchings - Millbank, The Little Pool, Early Morning, Battersea and Old Hungerford Bridge - were published in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames (the 'Thames Set'), by Ellis & Green in 1871.
It was etched specifically as a title page for the 'Thames Set' and advertisement for the exhibition of the 'Thames Set' at the gallery of E. Thomas on Old Bond Street in 1861. However, according to Lochnan, it was rejected as a title page, possibly at the suggestion of Ralph Thomas, Sr (1803-1862). 1

1: Lochnan 1984, p. 126.