UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

La Mère Gérard, Stooping

Impression: New York Public Library
New York Public Library
(MEZAP)
Number: 25
Date: 1858
Medium: etching
Size: 105 x 64 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 1
Catalogues: K.12; M.14; T.32; W.10
Impressions taken from this plate  (1)

PUBLICATION

La Mère Gérard, Stooping was not published.

EXHIBITIONS

The two portraits of Mère Gérard were shown together in the Union League Club, New York in 1881, La Mère Gérard, Stooping being described in the catalogue as 'LA MÈRE GÉRARD. A much smaller figure; quite unknown' (Graphic with a link to impression #K0110102 and Graphic with a link to impression #K0110424). 10 They would have been lent by Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), who was largely responsible for the comments in the catalogue, distinguishing the state and rarity of individual impressions and arranging them in roughly chronological order. He lent the impression of La Mère Gérard, Stooping again in 1900, to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago. 11

10: New York 1881 (cat. no. 14); see REFERENCES : EXHIBITIONS.

11: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 10).

It was also shown in two print shows, by the New York print dealers H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898 and 1903. 12

Finally, the two etched portraits were again shown together after Whistler's death, at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904 and the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905. 13

12: New York 1898 (cat. no. 9); New York 1903b (cat. no. 75).

13: New York 1904a (cat. no. 11); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 10).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) noted: 'It is almost unknown, but impressions are possessed by Mr Avery and by Mr Macgeorge of Glasgow.' 14 Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) showed his impression to Whistler, about 1874; the artist signed it and identified the sitter (Graphic with a link to impression #K0120101). It is now in the New York Public Library with the rest of Avery's collection. The other impression, owned by Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924), has not been located and does not seem to have been sold by H. Wunderlich & Co., New York with the MacGeorge collection in 1901 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0120102). 15

14: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 10).

15: New York 1901.