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Notre-Dame, Bourges

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1889.24)
Number: 402
Date: 1888
Medium: etching
Size: 219 x 130 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 2
Catalogues: K.402; M.401
Impressions taken from this plate  (2)

PUBLICATION

Notre-Dame, Bourges was never published. However, it is related to Whistler's unpublished 'Renaissance Set'.

EXHIBITIONS

Being very rare, it was rarely exhibited. An impression was lent by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K4020102). 7

Another was shown by H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1903 (possibly Graphic with a link to impression #K4020103). Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) lent one to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in Boston in 1904. 8 It was probably one of these that was exhibited at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904. 9

7: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 267).

8: Boston 1904 (cat. no. 227).

9: New York 1904a (cat. no. 371).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold an impression to Messrs Dowdeswell in London on 10 December 1888 for £10.10.0 but they returned it on 19 December. 10 He sold one successfully on 27 March 1889 to the Fine Art Society at the same price ('12' out of 24 sold, the total sale, after their 20 per cent discount, coming to £150.0.0). 11

Less than a month later - on 16 April 1889 - he sold a second, again at £10.10.0, to H. Wunderlich & Co., New York. This time it was numbered '10' out of 18 sold, for a total of £141.2.5 after their 20 per cent discount. 12 This was the 'Early Proof' bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) on 7 September of the same year (Graphic with a link to impression #K4020102).

Another impression was exhibited by Wunderlich's in 1903, and this may have been the impression acquired by Miss Louise Veltin (dates unknown) (Graphic with a link to impression #K4020103, stock no. a 38335).

10: GUW #13029, #00911.

11: Whistler to E.G. Brown, GUW #13000, and reply, #01210.

12: GUW #13055.