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Nocturne: Furnace

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1934.596)
Number: 208
Date: 1879/1880
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 171 x 233 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Second Venice Set', 1886
No. of States: 12
Known impressions: 46
Catalogues: K.213; M.210; W.183
Impressions taken from this plate  (46)

TECHNIQUE

Whistler used a combination of etching and drypoint in developing the copper plate for Nocturne: Furnace through many states. Marked changes to the figure inside the doorway during the early states were followed by more subtle additions of shading in the latter ones. Inking was as important as the framework of lines on most impressions, for plate tone and selective wiping of the plate created the contrast between the bright glow of a furnace in the interior and the subdued evening light outside on the canals.

PRINTING

Most impressions of Nocturne: Furnace are in dark brown ink, and they are on a variety of papers. Early states include impressions on ivory laid paper with an 'IT' countermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130202), cream laid with Strasbourg Lily / 'VG' watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130203) and with a 'WW' countermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130606), and a sheet with a watermark of two lions (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130z02).
Eventually, in the sixth state, Whistler was apparently satisfied with the composition. His impression of the sixth state was printed in black ink on ivory laid paper with ink tone carefully wiped to emphasize the glow of light from the furnace (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130302). He sent the plate to the publishers, Messrs Thibaudeau and Dowdeswell, who in their turn gave it to Émile Frédéric Salmon (1840-1913) for printing. He printed a good clear impression in black ink on pale buff laid paper and also used tone, very lightly, to emphasize the light of the furnace (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130303). However, Whistler then took over the printing of the published edition.
Nocturne: Furnace was published by Messrs Dowdeswell and Thibaudeau with the 'Second Venice Set' in 1886. A record of impressions printed by Whistler for this edition lists one delivered on 2 April and two on 3 April, one on 31 July, two on 25 August, and three on 6 October 1886; six on 5 January, sixteen on 8 February and seventeen on 26 February 1887, a total of 48. 8

8: Whistler to W. Dowdeswell, GUW #08717.

Impressions of the seventh state were mostly printed in dark brown ink on cream laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130402, Graphic with a link to impression #K2130408, Graphic with a link to impression #K2130405), buff, possibly Asian, paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130404) and Asian laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130403, Graphic with a link to impression #K2130405), all of which contribute to producing a warmer glow of luminous colour. These would have been among those printed in the spring and summer of 1886.
By the final, twelfth state, which was printed in February 1887, Whistler's aims seem to have been modified. While most were printed in dark brown ink on cream and ivory laid papers (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130z05, Graphic with a link to impression #K2130703, Graphic with a link to impression #K2130709) and some in black ink on laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130711) and buff Asian laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130705), all were printed with heavy tone, carefully wiped, producing a darker, more sombre and darkly atmospheric effect.
There is also a cancelled impression on ivory laid paper with a Marlowe watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2130805) - a paper only used for the cancelled impressions of the 'Second Venice Set' - which was acquired by Walter Stanton Brewster (1872-1954) and given to the Art Institute of Chicago, IL, 1933.