UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Regent's Quadrant

Impression: Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore Museum of Art
(1996.48.18108)
Number: 242
Date: 1880/1881
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 166 x 122 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 7
Known impressions: 10
Catalogues: K.239; M.235; W.192
Impressions taken from this plate  (10)
Regent's Quadrant dates from 1880 or 1881. The butterfly signature is consistent with this date. According to the Pennells it was done after Whistler's return from Venice:
'while he was living in Air Street, ... a signed proof once was brought to us by his landlady, who called it an original drawing, and said it had been made out of her window ... many [London etchings] are most delightfully composed, while the detail in the little figures is full of observation. The subjects show that they were rapidly done.' 1

1: Pennell 1908, vol. 1, p. 81.

Few etchings date from this period, because Whistler was engaged in proving and printing the Venetian etchings. However, similar subjects of this date include Drury Lane [243], Little Court [244], The Temple [245] and Alderney Street [246].