UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Little Putney Bridge

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.373)
Number: 186
Date: 1879
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 132 x 207 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower right (2-final)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: Printseller's Association, 1879; F. Wedmore, 1883
No. of States: 5
Known impressions: 56
Catalogues: K.179; M.176; W.146
Impressions taken from this plate  (56)

STATE

Five states are known.

State 1

Impression: K1790105
There is no signature or inscription.
In the impression reproduced, the trees to right of the main pier at left have been blotted out with white paint.
Upside down on the plate, in the lower right corner, are traces of an earlier etching, showing a farm house with tall chimneys, and the slanting chimneys of oast-houses or grain-drying houses. A detail of this is reproduced below.
Comparative image

State 2

Impression: K1790104
Traces of an earlier etching at lower right have been removed; some burnishing marks remain.
Published by the Printsellers Association in this and, occasionally, in later states.

State 3

Impression: K1790205
Signed with a butterfly at lower right.
Clouds have been added in drypoint; a sailing barge is added under the bridge at left, and the far bank behind it is shaded.
In the impression shown there is a small dark smudge above the trees under the central span, which appears to be inking rather than an addition.

State 4

Impression: K1790225
The clouds appear to have been rubbed down.

State 5

Impression: K1790227
Although virtually the same as state 4, the butterfly signature has faded away almost completely.
Published in F. Wedmore, Four Masters of Etching, 1883, after p. 36.