Etchings Institutions search term: british museum
La Vieille aux Loques |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46706) | |
| Number: | 27 | |
| Date: | 1858 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 207 x 147 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler' at lower right (2-final) | |
| Inscribed: | 'Imp. Delatre. Rue St. Jacques. 171.' (3); partly erased (4) | |
| Set/Publication: | 'French Set', 1858 | |
| No. of States: | 4 | |
| Known impressions: | 113 | |
| Catalogues: | K.21; M.21; T.9; W.14 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (113) | ||
PUBLICATION
EXHIBITIONS
Important impressions were shown in private clubs, for connoisseurs and collectors. A 'Trial proof; rare', probably
, was shown in New York in 1881 with an impression of the published state (). 8 Both were lent by Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), who was largely responsible for the comments in the catalogue, distinguishing the state and rarity of individual impressions and arranging them in roughly chronological order. Impressions were seen by the public in major exhibitions, such as in Philadelphia in 1879, Berlin in 1881; the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888, lent by Thomas Glen Arthur (1858-1907); 9 and at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. 10
It also appeared in print dealers' shows, at H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1898 (
) and 1903, and F. Keppel & Co. in 1902, both in New York, and Obach & Co. in London in 1903. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought two impressions from the 1898 show (, ). 11
Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent his impression to an exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago, in 1900 (). 12
After Whistler's death, impressions were shown in the Memorial Exhibitions, including New York and Boston in 1904. 13 King Edward VII lent a 'French Set', including this etching, to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905. 14
5: Hague 1863 .
6: 'Mr Whistler's Etchings', The Builder, 5 July 1874 (in GUL PC1/73); London Pall Mall 1874 (cat. no. 8).
7: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 509).
8: New York 1881 (cat. nos. 20, 21).
9: Glasgow 1888 (cat. no. 2552-6)
10: See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.
11: New York 1898 (cat. no. 13).
12: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 14).
13: New York 1904a (cat. no. 15); Boston 1904 .
14: London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 14).
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'. 15 Winan's set was given by his descendants to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1970. 15: GUW #07079.
). 16 The British Museum bought another impression in 1872 (). 16: V&A, Register for Prints, p. 33.
) and two more, that had been owned by Seymour Haden, in 1898 (, ).17: Sotheby's, 23 April 1887, lot 404.
18: Sotheby's, 28 February 1890 (lot 475); 3 March 1892 (lot 56); 15 December 1896 (lot 260).
19: Christie’s, 8-9 March 1892 (lot 3260); 13-14 July 1897 (lot 298); 31 July 1894 (lot 80).
, ). The two cancelled impressions were given by H. M. Dunbar, Chicago, to Toledo Museum of Art in 1927 () and by Emily Poole to Cincinnati Art Museum, 1940 ().); Adriaan Jacobus Domela Nieuwenhuis (1850-1935), Amsterdam (); James A. McCallum (1862-1948), Glasgow (); Loys-Henri Delteil (1869-1927) (); Mrs T. H. Riches (dates unknown) (); Atherton Curtis (1863-1944) in Paris (); Léopold Gustave Roux () and Ernest Stephen Lumsden (1883-1968) (). , ); Susan Dwight Bliss (1822-1966) (); George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) (); Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) (); Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) (); Harry Brisbane Dick (1855-1916) (, ); Ralph King (1855-1926) (); Clarence Buckingham (1855-1913) (); Margaret Selkirk Watson Parker (1867-1936) (, ); Albert Henry Wiggin (1868-1951) (); Anna Rice Cook () and Pauline Kohlsaat Palmer (1882-1956) (). , , , ); gave one impression to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1894 () and another to the Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (), and bequeathed one as part of the 'Frederick Keppel Memorial' to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1912 (). The plate was certainly cancelled before 1927 when a cancelled impression was given to Toledo Museum of Art ().20: Email to M.F. MacDonald, 16 July 2012, Whistler Etchings Project.
The Vincent Price Collection was discontinued in 1971. 22
Impressions of Whistler's La Vieille aux Loques from the Vincent Price Collection have been sold through sale-rooms and art-dealers more recently and can be viewed online. Most have the original Vincent Price Collection labels on the backboard. Case Antiques, for instance, sold one on 16 October 2010 as did Waddington's, 14-15 October 2008 when Lot 10 was described as with a 'fleur-de-lis' watermark. 23 Another was sold by Leland Little Auction & Estate Sales, Ltd., Hillsborough NC, in 2009 with Rag Pickers, Quartier Mouffetard, Paris [29], both from the Vincent Price Collection. 24
21: Classic TV Commercials, http://www.archive.org/ details/ the_vincent_ price_collection_ of_fine_art (accessed Feb. 2012).
22: http:// www.searsarchives.com (accessed February 2012).
23: Fall Antiques & Fine Art Auction (Lot 165) at http://www.liveauctioneers.com/ item/ 7911832 ; http://www.waddingtons.ca/ auction/ 16october2008/ catalogue/0/0010/ (accessed Feb. 2012).
24: 13-14 June 2009 (Lot 536) at http://www.auctionflex.com (accessed Feb. 2012).