Etchings Institutions search term: obach
The Unsafe Tenement |  Freer Gallery of Art (1889.20) | |
| Number: | 18 | |
| Date: | 1858 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 158 x 226 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler.' at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | 'Imp. Delatre. Rue St. Jacques. 171.' at lower left (2-3); erased (4) | |
| Set/Publication: | 'French Set', 1858 | |
| No. of States: | 4 | |
| Known impressions: | 76 | |
| Catalogues: | K.17; M.17; T.5; W.7 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (76) | ||
PUBLICATION
EXHIBITIONS
An impression was shown in Whistler's one-man show in London in 1874, and was praised by the critic of The Builder : '"The Parasol," "The Miser," and the "Old Farm" may be mentioned as showing genius and interest : the last named is a masterly study of an old picturesque building.' 16 Another impression was shown with the collection of James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) in a travelling show in Liverpool and elsewhere later in the same year. 17
In America one was shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1879 and two at the Union League Club in New York in 1881, the latter lent by Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904). They were entitled 'The Dangerous Habitation' and described as the first 'Trial proof, with figure of a woman. The only impression.' and 'With woman removed, etc.' (
, ). 18
Impressions appeared in print dealer's shows, particularly at H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1898 - which were bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (
, ), and 1903, and with Keppel & Co. (1902) in New York, and Obach & Co. in London in 1903, where a first and second state were shown. 19
Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent an impression to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 () and Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1902. 20
Other impressions were shown in the Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death, including those at the Grolier Club in New York and the Copley Society exhibition in Boston in 1904. King Edward VII lent a 'French Set' including this etching to the London Memorial show in 1905. 21
15: Hague 1863 .
16: 'Mr Whistler's Etchings', The Builder, 5 July 1874 (in GUL PC1/73). London Pall Mall 1874 (cat. no. 49).
17: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 505).
18: New York 1881 (cat. nos. 9, 10). See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.
19: New York 1898 (cat. no. 6).
20: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 7). Philadelphia 1902 (cat. no. 947 (7)).
21: New York 1904a (cat. no. 8); Boston 1904 (cat. no. 3); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 7).
SALES & COLLECTORS
) in the summer of 1859 through Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910), to whom he wrote on 20 June: 'I enclose two drafts on Liverpool amounting to £63 sterling and as requested by you, for the etchings - they arrived in good order and are considered very fine, doing Jemmy great credit'. 22 This was given by his descendants to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which also received one as a gift from William Loring Andrews (1837-1927) in 1883 (). 22: GUW #07079.
). 23
23: V&A, Register for Prints, p. 33.
) and another from Edmund Thomas (1842-1883) in 1872 () and acquired a second state in 1885 (). William Loring Andrews (1837-1927) gave a third state to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1883 (). 24: Sotheby's, 30 April 1876 (lots 728, 729).
25: Sotheby's, 22-23 April 1887 (lots 172, 396); 28 February 1890 (lot 472), 3 March 1892 (lot 50).
26: Christie's, 8-9 March 1892 (lots 330, 331).
27: Christie's, 31 July 1894 (lot 8).
28: Christie's, 17-20 February 1897 (lot 54), bought by 'Parsons'; 13-14 July 1897.
) and Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (), and second states owned by himself, Freer (, ) and Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935) (). 29 Freer's impressions came originally from the collection of Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) and were bought through Wunderlich's in 1898; Mansfield's have not been located. Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) and F. Keppel & Co. sold impressions to Freer (), gave one to the Metropolitan in 1917 () and to the Cleveland Museum of Art, in 1918 (). 29: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 17).
); Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) (); Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) (); Harry Brisbane Dick (1855-1916) (); Otto J. Schneider (); James A. McCallum (1862-1948) (); Guy John Fenton Knowles (1879-1959) () and Pauline Kohlsaat Palmer (1882-1956) ().). One acquired by the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich in 1904 was destroyed during the war, in 1944 ().Albert Henry Wiggin (1868-1951) gave one to the Boston Public Library (). The Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, bought one from Obach & Co. in 1908, for £5.0.0 ().