UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: metropolitan museum

Seymour Haden, Jr, Seated

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46716)
Number: 9
Date: 1857/1858
Medium: etching
Size: 137 x 98 mm
Signed: 'J Whistler' at lower left (obscured by shading)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 24
Catalogues: K.29; M.6; T.16; W.22
Impressions taken from this plate  (24)

PUBLICATION

It was never published.

EXHIBITIONS

Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) lent two impressions to the exhibition of the Union League Club in New York in 1881, which are listed in the catalogue as 'Seymour Haden' and described as 'Seated. Trial proof.' (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290108, Graphic with a link to impression #K0290213) and 'The same. With more work.' (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290213). 10 In a later print club exhibition, an impression was lent by Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290101 or Graphic with a link to impression #K0290102). 11

10: New York 1881 (cat. nos. 32-3);

11: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 22).

It was included in exhibitions by H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898 and 1903 (described as a 'Trial Proof'), and another 'Trial Proof' was shown at Obach & Co in London after Whistler's death in 1903.Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought the 'trial' - a first state - from the 1898 show (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290103). 12

After Whistler's death impressions were shown at the Grolier Club in New York and one - under the title 'A Little Boy' - was lent by King Edward VII to the London Memorial exhibition in 1905. 13

12: New York 1898 (cat. no. 21). See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

13: New York 1904a (cat. nos. 23a,b); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 22)

SALES & COLLECTORS

A first state impression from the collection of Philippe Burty (1830-1890), was bought by the British Museum in 1866 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290107) and another was sold at the Burty sale at Sotheby's, 27 April 1876, lot 745 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290106). George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) would have bought his impression of the first state in France at an early date (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290104). Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), visiting Whistler both in Paris and London, acquired both a first and second state, probably directly from the artist (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290108, Graphic with a link to impression #K0290213). Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) owned another first state, which was sold through Wunderlich's and bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1898 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290103).
The British Museum bought another impression - a second state - from Percy Thomas (1846-1922) on 13 July 1872 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290208). 14 Thomas sold another, a third state, to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1905 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290206). Other early collectors included William Loring Andrews (1837-1927) who gave it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1883 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290205); and Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290102) and Charles Deering (1852-1927) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290202) whose impressions went to the Art Institute of Chicago.

James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) had an impression that was sold at Sotheby's, 27-9 June 1876 (lot 665). Although it is an appealing image, it is a very small etching, and fetched comparatively small prices. Impressions were sold in London in 1892 as 'A Little Boy' at the sale of the collection of Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) and 'A Boy in a Scotch dress, seated' at the William Richard Drake (1817-1890) sale for £0.7.0 and £0.14.0; and in 1897, as 'A Little Boy (Portrait of Seymour Haden the younger)' for £1.10.0 (with La Marchande de Moutarde). 15

14: B.M. Print Room Register of Purchases ... 1872.

15: Sotheby's, 3 March 1892 (lot 67); Christie's, 8-9 March 1892 (lot 299), and Beavis sale, Christie's, 17-20, 22 February 1897 (lot 58).