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Liverdun

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.212)
Number: 13
Date: 1858
Medium: etching
Size: 109 x 156 mm
Signed: 'Whistler' at upper right (1-final); 'J. Whistler' at lower left (3)
Inscribed: 'Imp. Delatre. Rue St. Jacques. 171.' at lower right (3)
Set/Publication: 'French Set', 1858
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 48
Catalogues: K.16; M.16; T.2; W.4
Impressions taken from this plate  (48)

TECHNIQUE

An etching, with added texture provided by foul biting.

PRINTING

Over fifty impressions of Liverdun are recorded, most being of the third, published, state. The first state was printed in black ink on buff wove card, and is badly folded and torn - it seems to have been used for wrapping up a copper plate (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160101). An impression of the second state was printed in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper with a partial watermark of a shield and crown with a cross on top (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160102).
A few later impressions are in brown ink, for instance on cream 'modern' (post-1800) laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160203); light weight ivory laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160214, Graphic with a link to impression #K0160215); and on ivory Japanese paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160z09).
However, the third state was mostly printed in black ink on off-white China paper laid down on white or off-white wove plate paper (chine collé) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160202, Graphic with a link to impression #K0160204, Graphic with a link to impression #K0160209, Graphic with a link to impression #K0160221, Graphic with a link to impression #K0160235), and on tan chine appliqué on off-white wove paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160206, Graphic with a link to impression #K0160230). Other papers included fibrous wove papers in buff (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160205) and grey (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160228); tan laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160212) and a pale grey laid paper, possibly with a Strasbourg Lily watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160231) and thick dark cream wove card (Graphic with a link to impression #K0160227).