UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Home > The Catalogue > Browse > Etching

Mme Pelletier, Blanchisserie, Paris

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1904.16)
Number: 481
Date: 1897/1898
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 182 x 151 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 1
Catalogues: K.438; M.438
Impressions taken from this plate  (1)
Mme Pelletier, Blanchisserie, Paris dates from 1897/1898.
The form of the butterfly, which is shaded to indicate a butterfly in mourning, suggests this was etched after the death of Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896). A similar butterfly is seen on Carpet Menders, Paris [480].
On 11 November 1897 Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) wrote to Whistler: 'It is time to finish the etchings of Paris now, so as to make some noise. Tell me what is going on, "busy" is somewhat vague.' 1

1: GUW #07292.

The copper plate, made by C. Servant in Paris, is similar to a small group of etching plates, namely Confections pour Dames [475], Café Corazza, Paris [484], Antony's Print Shop, Rue de Seine [477], Polichinelle, Jardin du Luxembourg [467], Boulevard Poissonière, Paris [483], The Band, Luxembourg Gardens [466], Under the Statue, Luxembourg Gardens [464] (all of which date from the mid-to late 1890s), and Flaming Forge [490] and Sleeping Child, Ajaccio [488] (both of which date from 1901).