Cancelled Set
The Cancelled Plates
The set of Cancelled Plates was published by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879.
The album usually contained the following etchings and drypoints: Auguste Delâtre, Printer [28],
Greenwich Pensioner [40],
Whistler with a hat [44],
Z. Astruc, Editor of 'L'Artiste' [36],
Fumette's Bent Head [58],
Finette [61],
C. L. Drouet, Sculptor [35],
Arthur Haden [66],
Axenfeld [68],
Riault (The Wood Engraver) [69],
Mr Mann [73],
Lady in an armchair [91],
The Open Book [89],
Landscape with Fisherman [85],
The Storm [81],
The Camp [80],
Jo [87],
Brushing the Hair [94],
Battersea Reach [96],
Shipping at Liverpool [100],
Draped Model [109],
Sketches of Heads [138],
Whistler's Mother [103],
The Silk Dress [151],
Elinor Leyland [137],
Portrait sketches including F.R. Leyland and Whistler [122],
Mrs Leyland, Sr. [123],
Florence Leyland [136],
Speke Shore [139],
The Little Velvet Dress [119],
The Beach, Hastings [150],
The Scotch Widow [147],
F. R. Leyland [121],
A Lady at a Window [148],
Reading a Book [112],
The Piano [144],
A Man Reading [107],
Nude Woman Standing, hand on hip [114],
Nude Posing [125],
Girl Standing [152],
Nude Girl with Arms Raised [115],
Swinburne [108],
Shipbuilder's Yard, Liverpool [142],
From Billingsgate [165],
Lindsey Houses [161],
Pickle Herring Wharf [164],
London Bridge [172],
Steamboat Fleet, Chelsea [155],
Greenhithe [173],
Girl Lying Down [128],
Agnes [146],
A Sketch of Shipping [57],
Battersea: Early Morning [157],
Whistler with the White Lock [162],
Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 2 [159],
Under Old Battersea Bridge [168]. .
The majority of the subjects were portraits, including the portraits of Whistler's printer and of Whistler himself - which was certainly not finished, but was not necessarily cancelled - and these are reproduced below:
A small group from the set - reproduced below - consisted of studies of models, nude and clothed, all but one, Draped Model [109], being thoroughly cancelled, faint and unfinished.
Finally there were a selection of land- and river-scapes with views of Liverpool, London and the Thames, some of which are very thoroughly cancelled, and several of which are known only from this cancelled set:
However, it is possible that more etchings were printed and considered for inclusion in the album, and one album, now in Yale University Art Gallery, contains some additional prints, and some later prints, namely
House-roofs [132],
Seated woman facing left [134],
Woman seated in an armchair facing right [90],
Nude woman reclining [92],
A standing figure, possibly on stage [160],
Lady standing [149].
Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), noted on a loose sheet at the front of one album of these plates: 'Impressions of 57 cancelled plates published by the Fine Art Society in 1879. A number of these plates were returned to me after the artist's death by Robert Dunthorne of Vigo Street, London in exchange for a number of lithographic proofs'... This volume was also purchased by me from him. / R. Birnie Philip'. Inscribed on the binding of the volume is 'WHISTLER'S ETCHINGS'. 1
1: Note by R. Birnie Philip, Hunterian Art Gallery.
Ten of the albums of cancelled etchings, catalogued as 'A series of 57 Etchings, printed from the more or less scratched plates, partly unpublished, on Dutch paper, bound in folio', were sold at auction from the collection of Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892) by Sotheby's, on 13 December 1889, and bought mostly by print dealers and publishers, Messrs Dowdeswell (lot 794), Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) (lots 787, 788, 789), Lauser (lot 790, 793), F. Daniell (lot 791), Ellis - possibly Frederick Standridge Ellis (1830-1901) - (lot 795), and Edmund F. Deprez (1851-1915) (lots 792, 796), at £0.6.0 each.
Many albums were broken up but some impressions are still in the original album (see for example, 
, ).
, ).Sets of cancelled impressions were bought by several collectors - George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) bought a set, which passed eventually to the Baltimore Museum of Art (i.e. ). The British Museum acquired a set in 1887 (i.e. ). Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought a set in 1893 (i.e. ) which was bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.
). The British Museum acquired a set in 1887 (i.e. ). Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought a set in 1893 (i.e. ) which was bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.Ten of the albums of cancelled etchings, 'A series of 57 Etchings, printed from the more or less scratched plates, partly unpublished, on Dutch paper, bound in folio', were sold at auction from the collection of Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892) in 1889, and bought at £0.6.0 each, mostly by print dealers and publishers: Messrs Dowdeswell, Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851), Gustave Lauser (b. ca 1841), F. Daniell, Ellis - possibly Frederick Standridge Ellis (1830-1901) - and Edmund F. Deprez (1851-1915). 2 One set sold at the Thibaudeau sale (lot 787 or 789), and was bought by Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) for £0.6.0; it was later acquired in exchange for other artworks by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who bequeathed it to the University of Glasgow, 1958 (i.e. ).
).2: Sotheby's, 13 December 1889, lots 794; 787, 788, 789; 790, 793; 791; 795; 792, 796 respectively.
The Copper Plates
Whistler's partly cancelled copper plates were sold at auction after his bankruptcy in 1878. An auction of his property, including copper plates, was held by Sotheby's on 7 May 1879. The plates were bought by the Fine Art Society, and published in the 'Cancelled Set'.
Ten years later, Whistler's cancelled and rubbed down copper plates came on the market again.
68 'Published and unpublished' copper plates, 'more or less scratched', from the collection of Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892) were auctioned at Sotheby's, 13 December 1889 (lot 786) and bought by Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) for £11.12.0. Most were returned after Whistler's death to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958).
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
EXHIBITIONS
- Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905.
REFERENCES
- Kennedy, Edward G., The Etched Work of Whistler, New York, 1910 (cat. nos. Kennedy 26, 34, 48, 53-55, 57, 58, 6,1 63-65, 77, 79, 81-84, 90, 93, 94, 97, 100-104, 106, 107, 109-11,1 116, 124, 127-129, 131, 134, 136-138, 141, 142, 144, 146, 151-153, 156, 165-168, 171, 172, 176).
- Lochnan, Katharine A., The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1984, chap. 3.
- Mansfield, Howard, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-Points of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Chicago, 1909 (cat. nos. 26, 33, 47, 48, 53-55, 57, 58, 61, 63-65, 77, 79, 80, 82-84, 90, 93, 94, 99-104, 106, 108-110, 115, 118, 121, 124-126, 130, 132, 134-136, 139, 140, 142, 144, 149, 150, 153, 161-164, 168, 169, 173).