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Longshore men

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1890.5)
Number: 52
Date: 1859
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 153 x 225 mm
Signed: 'Whistler - ' at lower right
Inscribed: '1859 -' at lower right
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 37
Catalogues: K.45; M.44; T.45; W.43
Impressions taken from this plate  (37)

TECHNIQUE

It was drawn vigorously with patches of rough cross-hatching, scrawly zig-zags, and curved lines delineating rounded surfaces. The lines of the wooden bench go through the left arm of the man in the foreground, showing that he was drawn after the bench (but that these lines were partly removed or stopped-out before the plate was printed). The faces of the woman and child are mask-like, with patches of shading crossing the principal planes, like the eyes and cheeks. There is fine drypoint shading on and around the central man's right eye and on the cheek below it, and curved drypoint lines on the left sleeve of the leftmost man, which fade in late impressions.

PRINTING

It was printed in comparatively large numbers, considering that it was not published. Over forty impressions have been recorded.
Impressions of the first (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450125) and second (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450115) state were printed in black ink on ivory 'antique' (pre-1800) laid paper. Most impressions of the third state were printed in black ink, on a variety of papers including buff (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450103); grey wove (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450135); and cream 'modern' (post-1800) laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450109); off-white laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450123); cream laid paper taken from a book (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450116) and an unusual pale blue 'antique' laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450122). Quite a large proportion are on Asian papers, mostly cream Japanese (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450104, Graphic with a link to impression #K0450102, Graphic with a link to impression #K0450105), and ivory Japan (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450108). Some of these impressions may have been printed and sold in the 1870s (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450135, Graphic with a link to impression #K0450111).
The final state was usually printed in black ink, again on a variety of papers including grey chine appliqué (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450106); cream or ivory Japanese (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450110, Graphic with a link to impression #K0450127, Graphic with a link to impression #K0450129) and cream Asian laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450118). A few impressions were printed in dark brown ink on greenish 'modern' laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450117, Graphic with a link to impression #K0450112). Some of these were probably printed in the 1890s or after Whistler's death, possibly for the New York print dealer Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0450127, Graphic with a link to impression #K0450138).