UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Landing Stage, Cowes

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46947)
Number: 309
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 134 x 96 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 15
Catalogues: K.328; M.322; W.245
Impressions taken from this plate  (15)

PUBLICATION

Although not published officially, The Landing Stage, Cowes formed part of the 'Naval Review' or 'Jubilee Set'.

EXHIBITIONS

It was exhibited at print dealer's shows, by H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898 and 1903, and by Obach & Co. in London, also in 1903. 9

Impressions were shown in the Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death, at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904, and in Paris and London in the following year. An impression was lent by King Edward VII to the London Memorial Exhibition (Graphic with a link to impression #K3280105). 10

9: New York 1898 (cat. no. 226); New York 1903b (cat. no. 194).

10: New York 1904a (cat. no. 258); Paris Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 397); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 245).

SALES & COLLECTORS

There are few records of sales. One impression of 'Landing Stage Cowes' was sold by Whistler to the London print dealer Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) in London for £7.7.0 on 20 August 1887; Whistler's son, Charles James Whistler Hanson (1870-1935) offered another to William Craibe Angus (1830-1899) in Glasgow in December 1887, and Wunderlich's in New York bought one for Ross Revillon Winans (1850-1912) in 1888, for the same price. 11

11: GUW #13089; 16 December 1887, #01959; 3 May 1888, #07158.

One impression was presented in an album similar to that given to Queen Victoria and is now in the Art Institute of Chicago (Graphic with a link to impression #K3280114); others were acquired by Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3280113) and Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3280112).
Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought an impression from Wunderlich's in 1903 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3280103). He also bought one that was marked with a small 'o', probably by Whistler as a mark of quality (Graphic with a link to impression #K3280102), from Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) in 1904. Miss Philip had inherited another six impressions which she gave to the University of Glasgow, including the first proof (Graphic with a link to impression #K3280111) and one marked 'oo' (Graphic with a link to impression #K3280104). Another impression marked 'oo', from the album originally presented to Queen Victoria (Graphic with a link to impression #K3280105), was sold by King Edward VII through Agnew's, London, in 1906, and bought from Obach & Co. by Freer, who sold it back to Miss Philip. She gave the album, including this impression, to the University of Glasgow in 1935.