UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The 'Adam and Eve', Old Chelsea

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1954.45)
Number: 182
Date: 1878
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 175 x 302 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper left (3)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: Hogarth and Son, 1879.
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 92
Catalogues: K.175; M.172; W.144
Impressions taken from this plate  (92)

TECHNIQUE

This is mainly etching, with drypoint used to add emphasis in the foreground, and delicate sky effects in the background. Lochnan comments:
'In "the Adam and Eve", Old Chelsea he suggested light by means of shadow, and the whole by drawing a part. ... Whistler's concern was not so much to express the physical nature of the structure but to create a feeling of air and atmosphere, and a composition based on oriental principles of balance and placement. In this work the eye is no longer drawn to a specific area of the composition; instead it is drawn to different areas wherever details congregate. By drawing only the shadow and the light within the shadow, Whistler created a new sense of aerial perspective which is not found in the etchings of 1859.' 19

19: Lochnan 1984, p. 178.

PRINTING

There was a very large edition of over 100 impressions of this etching. Two thirds of these are in the final state (i.e. Graphic with a link to impression #K1750202).
Early impressions were printed in black ink on medium weight 'antique' (pre-1800) laid paper with Arms of Amsterdam watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750z10); buff laid with a countermark, possibly 'ID' (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750109); cream laid paper removed from a book with an old Latin inscription in brown ink on the verso (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750108); off-white paper from a ledger (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750104); and off-white Japanese paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750110, Graphic with a link to impression #K1750105).
The main edition, also printed in black ink, was also on a variety of paper. Western papers included off-white 'antique' laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750209); cream 'modern' laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750206); ivory (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750231) and buff laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750208); thick buff laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750230); and thin ivory wove (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750z01).
Asian papers predominated, and included dark ivory (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750221) and cream Japan (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750202, Graphic with a link to impression #K1750203, Graphic with a link to impression #K1750233, Graphic with a link to impression #K1750z27, Graphic with a link to impression #K1750234); light grey chine appliqué (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750227, Graphic with a link to impression #K1750239); ivory Asian laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750204); Asian laid backed with white Asian wove paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750216); tan chine collé (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750242); thin tissue-like ivory Japan (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750238); cream Asian laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750102, Graphic with a link to impression #K1750246); and cream Asian wove (Graphic with a link to impression #K1750107).
It is possible that Peter J. Platt, a copper plate printer from New York, printed impressions from the plate (which is inscribed with his name) in the period after 1905.