Little Putney Bridge |  Freer Gallery of Art (1898.373) | |
| Number: | 186 | |
| Date: | 1879 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 132 x 207 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower right (2-final) | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | Printseller's Association, 1879; F. Wedmore, 1883 | |
| No. of States: | 5 | |
| Known impressions: | 56 | |
| Catalogues: | K.179; M.176; W.146 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (56) | ||
STATE
Five states are known.
State 1
There is no signature or inscription.
In the impression reproduced, the trees to right of the main pier at left have been blotted out with white paint.
Upside down on the plate, in the lower right corner, are traces of an earlier etching, showing a farm house with tall chimneys, and the slanting chimneys of oast-houses or grain-drying houses. A detail of this is reproduced below.
State 2
Traces of an earlier etching at lower right have been removed; some burnishing marks remain.
Published by the Printsellers Association in this and, occasionally, in later states.
State 3
Signed with a butterfly at lower right.
Clouds have been added in drypoint; a sailing barge is added under the bridge at left, and the far bank behind it is shaded.
In the impression shown there is a small dark smudge above the trees under the central span, which appears to be inking rather than an addition.
State 4
The clouds appear to have been rubbed down.
State 5
Although virtually the same as state 4, the butterfly signature has faded away almost completely.
Published in F. Wedmore, Four Masters of Etching, 1883, after p. 36.