Reading a Book |  Freer Gallery of Art (1898.343) | |
| Number: | 112 | |
| Date: | 1873/1874 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 127 x 77 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 2 | |
| Known impressions: | 18 | |
| Catalogues: | K.111; M.110; W.97 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (18) | ||
STATE
Two states are known before cancellation.
State 1
Signed with a butterfly at the left edge, just above centre.
The features are indistinct and the nose is retroussé.
State 2
Vertical shading is extended at upper left, to the corner, and more shading added above the figure. 5
5: Reproduced as the first state in Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 111 I/II).
State 3
The face and features are redrawn and reduced in size; the nose is now straight, with vertical shading added to the left; some vertical lines and two horizontal lines are added below the butterfly, and slanting lines to left of the skirt's hem; the background shading is strengthened with diagonal and vertical lines.
Kennedy thought this impression, reproduced here from his reproduction, was the second state. 6 It is possible that some of the alterations noted around the face were added in pen, since they do not appear to be present on the cancelled plate. However, the drypoint is so delicate - and so rubbed down in the cancelled plate - that it is difficult to tell.
6: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 111 II/II).
State 2 (cancelled)
Cancelled with a light line across the face and rubbed down, particularly over the face and at upper left.