Rotherhithe | ||
Number: | 70 | |
Date: | 1860 | |
Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
Size: | 278 x 203 mm | |
Signed: | 'Whistler' at lower left | |
Inscribed: | '1860.' at lower left | |
Set/Publication: | 'Thames Set', 1871 | |
No. of States: | 6 | |
Known impressions: | 118 | |
Catalogues: | K.66; M.66; T.41; W.60 | |
Impressions taken from this plate (118) |
PUBLICATION
14: The Athenaeum, 26 August 1871, pp. 280-81.
EXHIBITIONS
15: Athenaeum, 24 May 1862, p. 699.
16: Paris Salon 1863a (cat. no. 2758).
17: Whistler to Rose, [25 March 1863], GUW #08983. See REFERENCES : EXHIBITIONS.
18: 'Mr Whistler's Etchings', The Reader, 4 April 1863. In GUL PC1/3.
Impressions were exhibited at the Glasgow Internationals in 1888, lent by Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924), and 1901, lent by James Cox-Cox (ca 1849- d.1901). 21 One was shown in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and another in an Art and Industrial exhibition in Wolverhampton in 1902. Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent an impression to a show organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 ( or ); and Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) to a major loan exhibition in Philadelphia in 1902 (). 22
Impressions were also included in print dealer's exhibitions such as those of Craibe Angus in Glasgow, and both Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) of F. Keppel & Co., and H. Wunderlich & Co., in New York. 23
Finally it was shown in the Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death, including Boston in 1904, to which impressions were lent by Francis Bullard (1862-1913) () and Mansfield (), and London in 1905, to which one was lent by King Edward VII. 24
19: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 495); London Pall Mall 1874 (cat. no. 15).
20: New York 1881 (cat. no. 83, 84).
21: Glasgow 1888 (cat. no. 2552-3); Glasgow 1901 (cat. no. 253).
22: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 55). Philadelphia 1902 (cat. no. 947 (59))
23: See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.
24: Boston 1904 (cat. no. 52-53); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 60).
SALES & COLLECTORS
The British Museum bought an impression from Percy Thomas (1846-1922) on 13 July 1872. (). 26 This would have been the impression held in 'the scanty collection of modern etchings in the British Museum' cited by H. Stewart Cundell in an article on 'English Etching', and described as 'a magnificent sketch of a tall vessel, figures in the foreground, the long line of dark warehouses bordering the shining water, and St. Paul's dome looming in the distance.' 27
Early impressions of Rotherhithe, often described as 'rare' and 'proofs' reached variable prices. At the Philippe Burty (1830-1890) sale in 1876 one was bought by Hogarth, the London print dealer, for £1.17.0. 28 Three impressions from the collection of James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) were exhibited by him in a travelling exhibition in 1874 and sold at Sotheby's in a three-day sale from 27 June 1876 (lots 704-6), one possibly being a touched proof (lot 705) which was acquired about that time by Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) ().
Another impression, from the collection of John W. Wilson (dates unknown), was bought in 1887 by Messrs Dowdeswell for £4.14.6; in 1892 at the sale of the collection of the late Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) one fetched only £2.14.0, and another owned by William Bell Scott (1811-1890) fetched even less, £2.6.0. 29
Whistler had probably sold impressions direct to some collectors; for instance, he probably sold one to Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892), and this was sold at auction with the rest of Leyland's collection at Christie's in 1893, and bought by Otto Gutekunst (ca 1865-after 1939) for £3.3.0. 30
Sometimes Whistler bought back his etchings, only to re-sell them. An impression from the collection of Joseph Fioupou (1814-1884) sold at the Hotel Drouot in Paris in 1884 for 11 fr. to Edmond Gosselin (1849-1917). 31 A few years later, in 1887, Whistler bought an impression from Edmond Gosselin (1849-1917), possibly this one, for 130 francs and sold it to Craibe Angus & Son of Glasgow for £15.15.0, making a good profit. 32
Around 1900, the impressions printed for and marketed by Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) were sold for £18.18.0. 33
25: i.e. Sotheby's, 31 May 1877 (lot 5391) sold to 'Smith'; Christie's, 30 March 1878 (lot 495) to F.A.S., and 8 March 1881 (lot 456) to 'Taylor'.
26: B.M. Print Room Register of Purchases... 1872.
27: 'English Etching', The Standard, London, 25 April 1878, p. 2 (GUL PC1/94).
28: Sotheby's, 1 May 1876 (lot 918).
29: Sotheby's, 22 April 1887 (lot 197); 3 March 1892 (lot 112) sold to 'Blunt'; 14 July 1892 (lot 129) to B. F. Stevens.
30: 24 February 1893 (lot 179).
31: 31 March 1884 (lot 292).
32: Whistler to F.A.S., 9 May 1887, GUW #13098; C. Hanson to Angus, [8 August 1887?], #00169; Whistler to Angus, [8 August 1887 - 20 January 1888], #13045.
33: H. Wunderlich & Co. 1900 stock book, no. a33968: 'Keppel asks 18/18- for his modern one - if signed ask more'.