UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Fanny Leyland

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1927.5946)
Number: 135
Date: 1874
Medium: drypoint
Size: 197 x 134 mm
Signed: butterfly at left (2-final)
Inscribed: 'Fanny Leyland' at upper left
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 6
Known impressions: 12
Catalogues: K.108; M.107; T.77; W.94
Impressions taken from this plate  (12)

PUBLICATION

Fanny Leyland was never published.

EXHIBITIONS

It was first recorded as exhibited with other Leyland family portraits (in oil, drypoint, chalk and pastel) with the collection of James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) in 1874 (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080202). 13 It was almost certainly shown as one of several drypoints all called 'Portrait' in Whistler's one-man exhibition in London in 1874. 14

In 1881, an impression was shown in an international exhibition in Berlin, and Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) lent what was described as a 'trial proof' to the Union League Club exhibition in New York (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080301). 15 A few years later, in 1887, one was shown in London at the Hogarth Club. 16 An impression was then shown at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888, lent by a major Glasgow collector, Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924). 17

Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) lent his impression to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 (which he helped organise), to the show organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900, to the first annual exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1902 and finally, after Whistler's death, to a Memorial show in Boston in 1904 (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080201). 18

Impressions appeared in several print dealers' shows, exhibited by H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898 (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080202) and 1903, and Obach & Co. in London in 1903.

13: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 480).

14: London Pall Mall 1874 (cat. nos. 6, 22, 24, 25, 27, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36 or 50).

15: New York 1881 (cat. no. 124). See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

16: London Hogarth 1887

17: Glasgow 1888 (cat. no. 2552-27)

18: Chicago 1893 (cat. no. 2252); Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 89); Philadelphia 1902 (cat. no. 947); Boston 1904 (cat. no. 76).

After Whistler's death, impressions were shown at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904 and at the big Memorial Exhibitions in Paris and - lent from the Royal Collection (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080404) - in London in 1905. 19

19: New York 1904a (cat. no. 98); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 94); Paris Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 332).

SALES & COLLECTORS

An impression owned by James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) was sold at auction on 30 June 1876 and bought by Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910); over twety years later, it was sold with his collection through Hermann Wunderlich & Co. of New York on 9 November 1898 to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080202) who bequeathed it to the Freer Art Gallery in 1917. William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916) bought an impression from Whistler, which passed from the family to the British Museum in 1973 (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080403). James Guthrie Orchar (1825-1888) acquired an impression that passed with his small but interesting collection to the Orchar Art Gallery and then to the McManus Art Galleries and Museum, Dundee (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080z01).
In 1877 Whistler sold impressions to the Fine Art Society, to Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) and to the London print dealer Hogarth for £4.4.0 each, and a second impression on Japanese paper (an early state before the butterfly) to Howell for £5.5.0. 20 Collectors included Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), who may have bought from other dealers or from Howell (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080301).

Ten years later, on 28 April 1887, Whistler sold an impression to Messrs Dowdeswell for £6.6.0. 21 This may have been the delicate impression owned by Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934), and later sold through Wunderlich's of New York, acquired by Charles Deering (1852-1927) and given in 1927 to the Art Institute of Chicago (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080402). An impression from the Royal Collection, having been exhibited at the Whistler Memorial show in 1905, was sold through Agnew's in London in 1906 to Wunderlich's in New York and then to Margaret Selkirk Watson Parker (1867-1936), and was eventually bequeathed to the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080404).

At auction prices were quite high. A 'trial proof' was sold with the collection of the late Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) at Sotheby's, 3 March 1892 (lot 146) and bought by the London print dealer, Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) for £15.10.0 (Graphic with a link to impression #K1080102) and Lot 147, a 'trial proof' 'with the monogram', was bought by Edmund F. Deprez (1851-1915) of Deprez & Gutekunst for £7.0.0. At the sale of the collection of William Richard Drake (1817-1890), Christie’s, 8-9 March 1892 (lot 304) 'Faunie' [sic] was also bought by Dunthorne for £5.0.0.

20: 10 October 1877, GUW #12734; 12 October-5 November 1877, #12735; 22-27 October 1877, #12737; 12 October-5 November 1877, #12735.

21: GUW #13020.