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Fleur-de-lys Passage

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46904)
Number: 360
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 185 x 82 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 11
Catalogues: K.289; M.286; W.233
Impressions taken from this plate  (11)

TECHNIQUE

After the initial vivid etched sketch, with broken, edgy lines, Whistler took great pains to convey the atmospheric, murky shadows of the interior, adding both fine drypoint and etched shading.

PRINTING

Whistler kept the first proof, which was printed in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2890103). The other known first state is in a darker, black ink, also on ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2890102); indeed, impressions seem to have been printed equally in brown and black ink.

Only one or two impressions of the first, second, and third states have been located, and a few more of the final state. Two impressions are on laid paper with partial 'Pro Patria' watermarks (Graphic with a link to impression #K2890203, Graphic with a link to impression #K2890z01), one is on ivory laid paper, with a partial Arms of Amsterdam watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2890303) and one has the watermark 'GR' over a crown (Graphic with a link to impression #K2890302).
On 18 July 1889 Whistler recorded a 'List of Proofs in Stock' including one unmounted impression of 'Fleur de lis Passage'. In a list that appears to date from slightly later, though it is not actually dated, he noted that he had three unmounted and two mounted impressions. 10 It is possible that he was printing these impressions of the final state around 1890, but it is not certain.

10: GUW #13235; [1890/1891], #13236.