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Soupe à trois sous

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.250)
Number: 64
Date: 1859
Medium: etching
Size: 152 x 228 mm
Signed: 'Whistler. -' at upper right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 56
Catalogues: K.49; M.49; T.25; W.27
Impressions taken from this plate  (56)

TECHNIQUE

This is an etching, often richly inked and printed with slight retroussage, so some lines resemble drypoint. Several light vertical lines to the right of the rightmost seated figure may, in fact, be drypoint. The Pennells commented,
'For the only time, and as a result of his training at Washington, his handling threatened to become mannered. But in some of the prints, ... done during these years, like the Drouet, Soupe a Trois Sous, Bibi Lalouette, he had perfected his early style of drawing, biting and dry-point.' 14

14: Pennell 1908, I, p. 72.

PRINTING

Over fifty impressions of this etching have been located in public collections. This is a large number, considering it was not published, and raises the question (since the copper plate has not been located) of whether some are posthumous impressions. If they date from Whistler's lifetime, they were certainly not printed by him. However, the quality of impressions is quite high, and it may be very difficult to tell.
Most impressions are in black ink, sometimes a warm black (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490110, Graphic with a link to impression #K0490112). A few are printed with some retroussage to enrich the lines (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490105). Two are in brown ink (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490142).
Lifetime impressions include ones on buff wove paper with pale blue fibres (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490102); dark ivory wove, signed by Whistler with a butterfly about 1875 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490121); heavy-weight greyish off-white laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490110); ivory laid with a coat of arms watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490108); and several on Asian papers including off-white (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490103) and cream Japanese laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490104, Graphic with a link to impression #K0490116, Graphic with a link to impression #K0490109).
Less certainly but probably lifetime impressions are also on both Asian and western papers. Several are on laid papers - a pinkish ivory paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490105); ivory, removed from a book, with Strasbourg Lily watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490106); ivory 'modern' (post-1800) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490135); thin cream 'modern' paper with scallop shell watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490112); browned ivory (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490114), thin beige (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490119) and off-white paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490132). Several are on Asian papers (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490120, Graphic with a link to impression #K0490143, Graphic with a link to impression #K0490122).
Impressions with uncertain early history, which therefore might be later (but with no other reason for considering them to be late) are on cream wove paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490136) and others on laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490145), in shades of buff (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490133, Graphic with a link to impression #K0490141), cream (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490142), and pale green (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490154). One impression is on a grey chine collé (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490107). A number are on Asian papers (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490134, Graphic with a link to impression #K0490151, Graphic with a link to impression #K0490144) including light-weight Japanese papers, some as fine as tissue (Graphic with a link to impression #K0490146, Graphic with a link to impression #K0490129).