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Florence Leyland

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.341)
Number: 136
Date: 1874
Medium: drypoint
Size: 215 x 140 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower right
Inscribed: ' "I am Flo" ' at right (6)
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 11
Known impressions: 43
Catalogues: K.110; M.109; T.79; W.96
Impressions taken from this plate  (43)

TECHNIQUE

This drypoint evolved through eleven states, both to develop the composition and to correct and later to restore fading drypoint.

PRINTING

There may have been a print-run of up to 20 impressions of this drypoint before cancellation, and even more after cancellation. Early impressions, with a heavy burr on the drypoint lines, were printed in black ink on Asian papers including cream Japanese paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100102), and on various shades of paper from cream (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100202, Graphic with a link to impression #K1100301) and ivory (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100303) to buff (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100304). An impression of the fourth state was inscribed by Whistler to Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) and dated '1873' with a note '6 x' that may mean he had six impressions remaining at that time (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100301); and a fifth state probably acquired by William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916) in the early 1870s has the number '11' inscribed, possibly by Whistler (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100304).

However, impressions from the seventh to eleventh states are very different. They were probably printed and sold around 1877 and include a high proportion on old watermarked paper. The variety of inking and paper includes dark brown ink on ivory laid 'antique' (pre-1800) paper with a countermark, which has been removed from an old book, and has extensive old inscriptions, possibly in Dutch, on the verso (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100503); brown ink on ivory laid paper, watermark 'B /TH' in an elaborate circle, with an old inscription, possibly Latin, on the verso (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100502); black on ivory medium-weight 'antique' paper with an Arms of Amsterdam watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100603); brown on cream laid 'antique' with partial Pro Patria watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100704) and black ink on ivory laid with a countermark, 'P D' (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100602) or 'D' (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100702).
Finally the plate was lightly cancelled and was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879 in an edition of about 20. The cancelled set was usually printed on off-white or ivory laid paper in black ink, including one with a partial Van Gelder watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1101001) and others on 'modern' (post-1800) paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100914) although one is on cream wove paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1101003).
After cancellation, an attempt was made to restore the plate. One of these 'restored' impressions was printed in black ink on ivory Japan (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100906). Another 'restored' impression was printed in a dark blue-green ink on off-white wove paper, on the back of a section cut from a map depicting islands - '[Iles] du Scarborough' and 'Iles Simpson' - sighted on the round-the-world voyage of the french corvette La Coquille in 1824 (Graphic with a link to impression #K1100909). This sheet was cut from a magnificent six-volume atlas published in 1826-1830. According to Woodford, the volumes of this atlas in both the Royal Geographical Society and British Museum stop at p. 202. 12 It is not known when the sheet was cut out or when the plate was reprinted - it is extremely unlikely that Whistler was responsible!

12: C. M. Woodford, 'The Gilbert islands', The Geographical Journal, Vol. 6, No. 4 (October 1895), pp. 335-336, in http://www.jstor.org/ stable/pdfplus/ 1773886.pdf (accessed 2010).