The Beach, Ostend |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46978) | |
| Number: | 353 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 82 x 185 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 4 | |
| Catalogues: | K.354; M.347 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (4) | ||
TECHNIQUE
The Beach, Ostend, is pure etching. Faint lines from an earlier subject or an earlier idea are visible at the centre and at right.
PRINTING
It is very rare. Three lifetime impressions of The Beach, Ostend have been located though sales records suggest there was at least one more, plus three printed posthumously. The lifetime impressions were all trimmed to the platemark and signed on a tab with the butterfly and 'imp.' to show that Whistler had printed them; two of these are printed in black ink on ivory laid paper with light surface tone (
), one of these being inscribed 'Ostend - 1st State' ().
), one of these being inscribed 'Ostend - 1st State' (). In 1931, at the request of Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), Nathaniel Sparks (1880-1956) printed three proofs on paper originally owned by Whistler. 9 Two were later recorded in Miss Philip's collection (, ), of which one was sold and has not been located. The other was printed in warm black ink on cream laid paper
(). It is signed 'Nathaniel Sparks. / Imp.' on the verso, and is not trimmed to the platemark, and so is easy to distinguish from Whistler's work.
, ), of which one was sold and has not been located. The other was printed in warm black ink on cream laid paper
(). It is signed 'Nathaniel Sparks. / Imp.' on the verso, and is not trimmed to the platemark, and so is easy to distinguish from Whistler's work.9: Martin Hopkinson, 'Nathaniel Sparks's Printing of Whistler's Etchings', Print Quarterly, 1999, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 340, 343, 349.