UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Dipping the Flag

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46937)
Number: 308
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 82 x 178 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 10
Catalogues: K.325; M.319; W.242
Impressions taken from this plate  (10)

PUBLICATION

Although not published officially, Dipping the Flag formed part of the 'Jubilee Set'.

EXHIBITIONS

It was exhibited mainly in print dealer's shows, by H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898 and 1903, and by Obach & Co. in London in 1903. 8

In addition, Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) lent his impression to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (). 9

Impressions were shown in the Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death, at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904, in Paris in 1905, and, lent by King Edward VII, at the London Memorial show in 1905 (). 10

8: New York 1898 (cat. no. 221); New York 1903b (cat. no. 191); London Obach 1903 (cat. no. 202); see REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

9: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 211).

10: New York 1904a (cat. no. 255); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 242).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold one to the London print dealer Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) on 20 August 1887; another was offered to William Craibe Angus (1830-1899) of Glasgow on 16 December; and others definitely sold to H. Wunderlich & Co. on 3 May 1888 and 24 March 1899 - all at £8.8.0. 11 Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought his impression from Wunderlich's on 1 May 1888 (). There was one private sale: Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) bought an impression from Whistler, also for £8.8.0, on 21 July 1890 (). 12

Finally, in June 1903, shortly before Whistler's death, the London print dealer Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) bought an impression, still at £8.8.0. 13 At this point Whistler still had at least two impressions, and these were inherited by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who bequeathed them to the University of Glasgow (, ).

In 1903 an impression from the collection of Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924) was sold (valued at £5.5.0) to Wunderlich & Co.; it passed to Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935), was sold through A.A. Hahlo & Co., and was given by Albert Henry Wiggin (1868-1951) to Boston Public Library ().

11: GUW #13089; #01959, #07157, #13659, #07305.

12: GUW #13048.

13: 3 June 1903, GUW #13042.