UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Venetian Mast

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1934.536)
Number: 219
Date: 1879/1880
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 344 x 166 mm
Signed: butterfly at left (6-final)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'First Venice Set', 1880
No. of States: 12
Known impressions: 57
Catalogues: K.195; M.192; W.160
Impressions taken from this plate  (57)
Etching: PK195_01 (plate)
The copper plate has no maker's mark. It is a tall, narrow plate, distinguished by small flakes of copper on the verso, and made specially for Whistler in Venice. 8

It was published in Venice, a Series of Twelve Etchings (the 'First Venice Set') by the Fine Art Society, London, in 1880. It was printed between 1880 and 1889, when it was first cancelled lightly with crossed lines and then thoroughly with a large butterfly and crossed diagonal lines.
The plate was in Whistler's studio at his death and was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935.