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Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 1

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1903.267)
Number: 158
Date: 1876/1877
Medium: drypoint
Size: 228 x 153 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 6
Catalogues: K.170; M.167; W.139
Impressions taken from this plate  (6)

PUBLICATION

The Fine Art Society probably intended to include it in the set of cancelled plates published in 1879, but only one impression was taken (Graphic with a link to impression #K1700403) before it was withdrawn and Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 2 [159] substituted in the main edition.

EXHIBITIONS

Only one exhibition of this rare drypoint is known during Whistler's lifetime, when it was shown in a print dealer's show, by H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898, under the incorrect title, 'Irving as Charles the First'. 14

14: New York 1898 (cat. no. 118).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) bought two impressions of 'Irving' (which could have been this drypoint and/or Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 2 [159]) for £1.1.0 and £3.3.0. 15

Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) owned unique impressions of both the first (Graphic with a link to impression #K1700102) and second (Graphic with a link to impression #K1700202) states. The first was bought from Obach & Co., by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1903, and the second by Margaret Selkirk Watson Parker (1867-1936), possibly at the same time. A later state, possibly the fourth state, was acquired by Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) and exhibited in Boston in 1910 as 'Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 1' (Graphic with a link to impression #K1700402). 16

15: Howell to Whistler, [6-25 November 1877], GUW #02178.

16: Boston 1910 (cat. no. 115).