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San Biagio

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46841)
Number: 237
Date: 1880
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 212 x 308 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Second Venice Set', 1886
No. of States: 17
Known impressions: 68
Catalogues: K.197; M.194; W.163
Impressions taken from this plate  (68)

STATE

Seventeen states are known before cancellation, which occurred in three stages.

State 1

Impression: K1970102
Signed with a butterfly near the left edge.
The composition is mostly complete; with horizontal lines shading the ceiling of the arch, a blank space to left of the boys on the boat in the middleground and an unshaded window just above their heads.
The impression illustrated is lightly inked.

State 2

Impression: K1970201
The roof of the arch is strengthened with vertical and diagonal lines; the blank space to left of the boys on the boat has faintly drawn figures; the unshaded window above the boys' heads is darkly shaded; lines are added to the darkest shading on the boat with the boys and to the one in the foreground as well as around the balcony at left; a figure is very faintly outlined at lower left, near the water's edge; some fine vertical lines are added to the reflection of the boat in the foreground.
The impression illustrated has a small grey stain at lower right.

State 3

Impression: K1970302
The longer sleeve of the garment hanging in front of the arch at right is reduced in width; a few more lines of drypoint shading are added around the faintly drawn figures to left of the boys on the boat; fine verticals are added to the water beneath the bow of the boat in the foreground and along the shoreline to its right.

State 4

Impression: K1971302
With new right to left diagonal drypoint shading (///) on the ceiling of the arch, to the left of both the long and short arm of the garment hanging at right.

State 5

Impression: K1970z06
The long narrow opening at the top of the arch wall, which was formerly white, is now covered with dark shading.

State 6

Impression: K1970504
Just one woman, now more clearly defined, stands to left of the boys on the boat, with some fine drypoint shading on either side of her; a much smaller figure is faintly drawn in outline, further down the passageway behind the woman.
Kennedy used the impression pictured above for the illustration of his fifth state. He mistook it as an example of later development of the plate, when - in fact - it is earlier than his fourth state. Kennedy's fourth state has become the eighth state in this catalogue. 5

5: See Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 197 V).

State 7

Impression: K1970404
Left to right diagonal shading (\\\) is added to the roof of the arch; a patch of close vertical drypoint lines is added to the reflection below the stern of the boat in the foreground.

State 8

Impression: K1970505
The woman behind the boys on the boat, the fine drypoint lines around and behind her and the small faint figure further down the passageway are partly or completely removed; the shading on the doorway above the boys' heads is reduced or worn. 6

6: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 197 IV). Kennedy had the states in the wrong order.

Published in this and later states by Messrs Dowdeswell and Thibaudeau with the Twenty-six Etchings (the 'Second Venice Set') in 1886.

State 9

Impression: K1970403
New diagonal shading in both directions further shades the roof of the arch; the standing figure near the water's edge at left is more clearly delineated, and there is a diagonal scratch above his head; left to right diagonal shading (\\\) is added to the window above the boys' heads; the window opening, which was formerly defined at the top by a horizontal line, now appears rounded; the head and hat of the man standing directly to right of the window has been changed - his head is smaller and the hat brim narrower; fine shading is added to the side of the figure kneeling to right of the beached boat and on the tarpaulin covering the boat's cargo; left to right diagonals are added to the shading on the left side of the boat's hull; pale horizontal shading, on the building with the crenelated chimney pot in the distance, now extends upward from the figures on the pavement to the street lamp and hanging laundry; the patch of vertical shading in the reflection of the boat in the foreground is barely visible.
Published in this and subsequent states with the 'Second Venice Set'.

State 10

Impression: K1970604
The faint outlines of the woman standing to left of the boys are removed, and the lower part of that area is covered by light left to right diagonal lines (\\\) ; the smaller figure behind the standing woman is replaced by a more fully developed woman, but she is very faint; the man standing to right of the window, above the boys' heads, is replaced by vertical and diagonal lines shading the wall; patches of heavy shading are added to the ceiling of the arch, and the original fine shading is either rubbed down with charcoal or rebitten, producing a soft, less linear effect on the ceiling of the arch.

State 11

Impression: K1970702
Additional heavy diagonal shading is added at the centre and left of the arch ceiling; patches of short diagonals cover the entire area where the taller woman once stood; fine irregular lines cover the faint smaller woman.

State 12

Impression: K1970802
New fine vertical and diagonal lines further shade the area where the taller woman once stood; heavy lines darken the shading on almost the entire ceiling of the arch but do not completely cover the rectangular window on the right passageway wall, below the right hanging garment; the standing figure at lower left has become faint.

State 13

Impression: K1970926
Fine diagonals cover the window, doorway and shutters above and to left of the boys on the boat; new lines cover the small rectangular window on the right wall of the passageway, below the right hanging garment.
The impression illustrated is printed with plate tone on the open shutter at the top of the left wall of the passageway, creating the appearance of new shading.

State 14

Impression: K1970803
The heavy lines on the ceiling are reduced in strength; the outlines of the hanging garments are changed - the sleeves on the left garment are wider and the left sleeve on the right garment now has a longer narrow cuff; some lines on the wall of the arch below the hanging garment at right are reduced and others are removed, creating the shape of a window with a pale rectangular windowpane or shutter at upper left.

State 15

Impression: K1970930
The pale rectangular windowpane or shutter, on the wall of the arch below the hanging garment at right, is covered with fine shading and is no longer visible, although the shape of the window and a tiny light rectangle on its lower right are discernable; new dark shading covers most of the ceiling of the arch but does not extend down the right wall of the passageway.
The impression illustrated has a small v-shaped tear at lower left, between the faint standing figure and the boat in the water.

State 16

Impression: K1970907
New dark shading extends below the window on the wall of the passageway but does not reach the curve of the arch at the back of the ceiling.

State 17

Impression: K1970929
Dark shading now reaches the curve of the arch at the back and covers the entire ceiling; the heavy shading on the ceiling and wall of the passageway appears to have been rubbed down with charcoal, softening the effect of the lines.

State 17 (cancelled a)

Impression: K1970906
Cancelled with one short diagonal and one short horizontal line at left and two short diagonal lines at right.

State 17 (cancelled b)

Impression: K1970905
Further cancelled with one additional diagonal line at left, one at the top and three additional lines at right, two of the latter being just above earlier cancellation lines.

State 17 (cancelled c)

Impression: K1971101
Further cancelled with three long left to right diagonals (\\\) crossed by four long right to left diagonals.