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Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 2

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1904.59)
Number: 159
Date: 1876/1877
Medium: drypoint
Size: 228 x 155 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 6
Known impressions: 22
Catalogues: K.171; M.168; W.139
Impressions taken from this plate  (22)

PUBLICATION

It was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879.

EXHIBITIONS

Rare, and rarely exhibited, an impression was, however, lent after the artist's death to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905 by Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) (Graphic with a link to impression #K1710201). 14

14: London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 139).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Two impressions of 'Irving' were bought by Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) on 11 November 1877 for £3.3.0 and another two on 15 November for £1.1.0: these may have been this drypoint, or Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 1 [158]. 15 About the same time Howell sold what he described as 'Pale Irving'- and again this could be either of the portraits of Irving, to Jane Noseda (b. 1813 or 1814). 16

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

16: Howell to Whistler, [1877?], GUW #02181.

Three early states were owned by Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) (Graphic with a link to impression #K1710102, Graphic with a link to impression #K1710302, Graphic with a link to impression #K1710401). 17 The second of these was acquired in 1904 by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), who also bought a spectacular half-inked impression from Messrs Obach for £68.5.0 - a seriously large amount (Graphic with a link to impression #K1710303). A second state was owned by Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) (Graphic with a link to impression #K1710201), and was probably that lent by him to the Whistler Memorial show in London in 1905. 18 A third state, printed by Maud Franklin (1857- ca 1941), was acquired by first Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) and later Harris G. Whittemore (d. ca 1937) and is in a private collection (Graphic with a link to impression #K1710304).

17: Morning Post, 26 October 1903 (GUL PC 21/6).

18: London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 139).

Over a dozen impressions in the albums of cancelled plates were acquired by major collectors including Freer (Graphic with a link to impression #K1710502) and George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) (Graphic with a link to impression #K1710505), and collections such as the British Museum in 1887 (Graphic with a link to impression #K1710506), and the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1896 (Graphic with a link to impression #K1710508).