UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Piccadilly

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46893)
Number: 256
Date: 1886
Medium: etching
Size: 111 x 70 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 11
Catalogues: K.256; M.252; W.208
Impressions taken from this plate  (11)

TECHNIQUE

The tentative broken etched outlines are extremely delicate, but the only drypoint appears to be the butterfly signature.

PRINTING

On 2 September 1887 Whistler listed eleven impressions of 'Piccadilly', and then on 26 September he again noted eleven impressions, in the same document. 7 This probably means that he had printed eleven by 2 September and still had eleven in stock on 26 September. He had sold some before September and it is not really clear if these records are duplicates.

7: [8 February-29 September 1887], GUW #12796.

Impressions were printed in dark brown ink mostly on off-white light-weight laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2560102, Graphic with a link to impression #K2560108); and ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K2560103, Graphic with a link to impression #K2560104, Graphic with a link to impression #K2560105). One is in black ink on off-white red-edged laid paper removed from a book (Graphic with a link to impression #K2560110). Most are trimmed to the platemark and signed on the tab with a butterfly and 'imp.' to show that he had printed them.
The plate seems to have become scratched and slightly corroded, and while one impression from this slightly damaged plate was trimmed and signed (Graphic with a link to impression #K2560109), another, although trimmed, has no signature on the tab (Graphic with a link to impression #K2560109).