UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Barrow - Quartier des Marolles, Brussels

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1917.509)
Number: 346
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 128 x 178 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 8
Known impressions: 17
Catalogues: K.357; M.356; W.253
Impressions taken from this plate  (17)

PUBLICATION

It was not published officially, but is considered part of a 'Brussels Set'.

EXHIBITIONS

Whistler must have thought highly of this etching and first exhibited it in 1889 at the Exposition Universelle in 1889. 7 The next exhibition recorded was in 1898 when an impression from the collection of Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) was shown by H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York. 8 An impression was lent by Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3570202). 9

Messrs Obach & Co. exhibited an impression in London in 1903, and others appeared in the Memorial Exhibitions after the artist's death - at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904, in Paris in 1905, and, lent by Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934), at the London show, also in 1905. 10 Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) inherited several impressions from Whistler and lent one to the Rotterdam memorial show in 1906 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3570001, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570002, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570003, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570203, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570204, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570305, or Graphic with a link to impression #K3570306!). 11

7: Paris Exp. Univ. 1889 (cat. no. 419).

8: New York 1898 (cat. no. 257); see REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

9: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 219).

10: London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 253).

11: Rotterdam 1906 (cat. no. 50).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold impressions on 17 November 1887 to the London print dealer Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) for £10.10.0 each. 12 He sold more on 1 and 10 February 1888 to Messrs Dowdeswell at £12.12.0. 13 This remained the price for some time.

Early British collectors included John Charles Sigismund Day (1826-1908) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3570307), John Postle Heseltine (1843-1929), who bought one directly from Whistler in 1889, 14 and Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891). An impression was sold at the auction of Hutchinson's collection in 1892 and bought by the print dealer Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) for much less - £5.5.0 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3570302). 15 It was later acquired by Clarence Buckingham (1855-1913) and left by his sisters to the Art Institute of Chicago.

12: GUW #13016.

13: GUW #13026, #13027.

14: 20 January 1889, GUW #13037.

15: Sotheby’s, 3 March 1892 (lot 334).

There seems to have been a flurry of orders for this etching. Whistler sold one on 3 May 1888 to H. Wunderlich & Co., New York. 16 Wunderlich's had just (on 1 May) recorded the sale of an impression to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3570304). The artist sold another on 18 December 1888 to the Fine Art Society and one was sold (or at least offered) on 13 December 1889 to Durand-Ruel. 17 Ten years later, but at a slightly lower price, after a substantial discount, Whistler sold an impression to Wunderlich's for £8.8.0 and another at £7.7.0. 18

American collectors, who acquired good impressions, included Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3570102 and probably Graphic with a link to impression #K3570103) and Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916), who owned one by 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3570202).

However, Whistler still had a lot left and bequeathed several to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who gave one (Graphic with a link to impression #K3570001) and bequeathed others (Graphic with a link to impression #K3570002, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570003, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570203, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570204, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570305, Graphic with a link to impression #K3570306) to the University of Glasgow.

16: Wunderlich's to Whistler, GUW #07158.

17: GUW #12999; #09068.

18: Wunderlich's to Whistler, 24 March 1899, GUW #07305.