UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Home > The Catalogue > Browse > Etching

Cutler Street, Houndsditch

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1938.1892)
Number: 361
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 178 x 128 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 8
Catalogues: K.292; M.287; W.234
Impressions taken from this plate  (8)

TECHNIQUE

This etching was freely drawn with expressive broken lines - curved, hooked, and jerky - with the deep shadow at left augmented with close cross-hatching. There are a lot of flecks and dots of foul-biting, giving a grainy texture to the scene.

PRINTING

Impressions were printed in quite dark shades, mostly in dark brown ink (Graphic with a link to impression #K2920206) but also in black ink (Graphic with a link to impression #K2920202), and usually on laid paper. The first state is on ivory 'antique' (pre-1800) laid paper, one impression with a Pro Patria watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2920102) and another with a partial watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2920103). Second states are on ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2920205, Graphic with a link to impression #K2920206), one with a Crown watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2920202); and another is on cream laid paper with a crowned 'GR' countermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K2920203). They are all trimmed to the platemark and signed with the butterfly and 'imp.' on the tab to show that Whistler had printed them.