UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: athenaeum

The Forge

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46753)
Number: 86
Date: 1861
Medium: drypoint
Size: 197 x 319 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.' at lower right
Inscribed: '1861' at lower right
Set/Publication: 'Thames Set', 1871
No. of States: 6
Known impressions: 95
Catalogues: K.68; M.68; T.57; W.63
Impressions taken from this plate  (95)

PUBLICATION

It was published in the fourth state as 'The Forge' in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on The Thames and other Subjects (the 'Thames Set') by Messrs Ellis & Green in 1871.
This was one of two non-London drypoints in the set (with J. Becquet, Sculptor [62]), and was presumably included to add variety. It was the only one in the set to be printed entirely by Whistler, demonstrating his skills as a printer.
A reviewer of the set described it as: 'No 3 'The Forge', a fine example of power subordinated to skill and learning.' 15

15: [F.G. Stephens], The Athenaeum, 26 August 1871, pp. 280-81.

EXHIBITIONS

It was exhibited first at the Royal Academy, London, in 1863 as 'The Forge', and, according to the Pennells, it was badly hung, 'reproductive work being then, as now, preferred to original etching'. 16 An impression was shown by Whistler in his first one-man show in London in 1874. The Builder commented:

16: London RA 1863 (cat. no. 972) Pennell 1908 , I, p. 101.

'Our own opinion is that Providence intended Mr. Whistler for an etcher; at least it is in this peculiarly artist's art that his success is most incontestable. ... it is remarkable to see what freedom and effect the artist has attained, even in subjects of some intricacy, with that stiff and stubborn method of execution - the "drypoint." Look at "The Forge," and see how thoroughly and intensely the expressions of the men working in the heat of the open furnace-door, and the youths craning their necks behind to look in, are given.' 17

17: Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Exhibition', The Builder, 5 July 1874, in GUL PC1/73; London Pall Mall 1874 (cat. no. 2).

It was also exhibited in the same year in a travelling exhibition of the collection of James Anderson Rose (1819-1890). 18 Philip Henry Rathbone (1828-1895) reviewed the 'Etching exhibition at the Liverpool Art Club', commenting, like the critic of The Builder, on the medium of drypoint:

18: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 521).

'the use of ''dry point'' ought not to be encouraged, because the incisions made by the etching needle are so delicate and shallow that after a few impressions the plate becomes worse than valueless, giving a totally wrong idea of the artist's scope and intention. Any one who has compared a fine impression of Mr Whistler's Forge, like that of Mr Rose ... with the ordinary published impressions, will at once see what we mean.' 19

19: The Academy, 14 November 1874, p. 544. Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 521).

Likewise, The Forge was being shown in America: Joseph Longworth, lent one to the international exhibition in Cincinnati in 1872 and Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) lent a 'Fine proof' to the Union League Club in New York in 1881 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680332). 20 Other major American exhibitions included the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent an impression to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680302 or Graphic with a link to impression #K0680303). 21

It was also included in print dealer's exhibitions such as those of Craibe Angus in Glasgow (1879). Impressions were shown by Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) of F. Keppel & Co. in 1902, and H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1898 and 1903, in New York. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) purchased a print from the 1898 show (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680203). 22

20: New York 1881 (cat. no. 89); Cincinnati 1872 (cat. no. 202). See REFERENCES : EXHIBITIONS.

21: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 58).

22: New York 1898 (cat. no. 60).

After Whistler's death, impressions were shown in the principal Memorial Exhibitions including the Grolier Club, New York, and the Copley Society, Boston, in 1904; and the London Memorial exhibition in 1905. 23

23: New York 1904a (cat. no. 67); Boston 1904 (cat. no. 56); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 63).

SALES & COLLECTORS

On 17 October 1863, Whistler sold an impression of what he called the '2nd state' - actually the fourth state - to the British Museum for £1.1.0 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680310). 24 The Museum bought another - a lightly inked impression - in 1874 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680311). The Victoria & Albert Museum bought a full 'Thames Set' from Ellis & Green in 1871 for £12.12.0 including this drypoint (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680333), and Constantine Alexander Ionides (1833-1900) bequeathed an impression to the Museum in 1901 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680334).

In a revealing letter to Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), in July 1873, Whistler boasted of prices received for his prints at auction. An 'early proof on Japanese paper'; from the collection of Arthur Thomas (dates unknown), was sold at Sotheby's on 23 June 1873 and bought for the comparatively high price of £3.10.0 by Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876). Whistler then wrote to Avery - who had bought or was about to buy two impressions (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680302, Graphic with a link to impression #K0680332) :

24: GUW #11109.

'All were bought by Colnaghi, for selling again of course - except the Forge, which was bought by Ralph Thomas - So you see even at an auction the prices these proofs fetch and you cannot expect me to let you have them at lower rates - Besides of course you can ask them as well in America as in London - ' 25

25: Whistler to S. P. Avery, [7 July 1873], GUW #10628.

James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) exhibited an impression in a travelling show in 1874 and then sold it at Sotheby's in a three-day sale from 27 June 1876 (lot 736). It was the highest priced print in the sale, being bought by the print-dealer Hogarth for £11.11.0. At that time, according to Rose, only five or six impressions had been taken from the plate. This was incorrect, since it had been published with the 'Thames Set', but it might have influenced the price.
Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890), who was helping to print and sell the etchings in the years preceding Whistler's bankruptcy, bought an impression of the Forge (either this etching or The Little Forge, Liverpool [141]) direct from the artist in 1877 for £3.3.0. 26 This was a good price - at auction in that year it fetched only £0.19.0 (Sotheby's, 12 June 1877, bought by the print dealers, J. Hogarth & Sons). Wedmore commented dismissively:

26: C. A. Howell to Whistler, 6-15 November 1877, GUW #02178; Whistler to Howell, 9-11 November [1877], #12738.

'The effect aimed at in this audacious dry-point is attained only in about half a dozen early impressions ... Mr Avery has one; another, which was perhaps not wrongly described as 'the finest taken,' was bought at Mr Anderson Rose's Sale for 11£. 11s. by Hogarth; and another at Sir William Drake's Sale for about £19. The later impressions have, I hope, no money value.' 27

27: Wedmore 1899 (cat. no. 57).

At Whistler's bankruptcy sale, at Sotheby's on 12 February 1880 (by which time Whistler was in Venice) three prints including The Forge were sold for a reasonable price, £6.16.8. Thomas Way reported to Whistler, who was in Venice: 'The sale is over & I think most satisfactorily - Your works have sold very well - The Etchings of The Forge - Speke & Battersea fetched - Twenty pounds ten shillings'. 28 The sale included The Forge, Battersea Reach [96] and either Speke Hall: The Avenue [101] or Speke Shore [139], which were bought by 'Howe', who was probably Charles Augustus ('Owl') Howell, for £20.10.0. 29

28: Whistler to T. Way, 12 February 1880, GUW #06080.

29: Sotheby's, 12 February 1880, annotated sale catalogue, GUL SC 1880.1.

It is true that both quality and provenance enhanced prices, and, for instance, at the sale of the collection of the late Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) at Sotheby's on 3 March 1892 (lot 113), one 'early proof, full of burr' fetched £2.8.0, bought by Thomas Way (1837-1915) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680305, later sold to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919)), while Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851), London print dealer, bought another (lot 114) for £6.10.0. Rarity was even more appealing, and 'one of the first impressions' was sold from the collection of William Richard Drake (1817-1890) in 1892 for the princely sum of £19.9.0. 30

30: Christie's, 8-9 March 1892 (lot 329).

Whistler certainly thought the drypoint valuable, partly because of what he called its 'rarity' or because he had hardly any 'proofs', since they had all been sold with the 'Thames Set' by art dealers and publishers. He even asked Joseph Pennell (1860-1926) to try and find out its monetary value:
'I wish you would find out - perhaps from Dunthorne or Dowdeswell - or better perhaps Browne (F A S) what a proof of the "Forge" - the large drypoint - ought to be worth - It is of course of the greatest rarity - and I could not easily find out for myself - Have they given thirty or forty [gns?] - Is it worth as much or more than the "Jo"? -' 31

31: [13 March 1894], GUW #07787.

Presumably a recent sale of Jo had reached a notably high price, but unfortunately this has not been identified.
Early European collectors - or Americans settled in Europe - included Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680202, Graphic with a link to impression #K0680316, Graphic with a link to impression #K0680322); George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680307); Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910), whose impression was sold through Wunderlich's to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1898 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680203); Atherton Curtis (1863-1944) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680320); James Smith (1831-1923), bequeathed to the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680323); James Guthrie Orchar (1825-1888), bequeathed to the Orchar Art Gallery, and passed to the McManus Art Galleries, Dundee (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680z04); the Royal Collection (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680z09); Guido von Usedom (1805-1884) and thence to the Royal Library of Belgium. (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680z23); and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, bought from F. Keppel, in 1903 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680410).
American collectors included Joseph Longman, who gave one to Cincinnati Art Museum in 1883 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680343); Henry F. Sewall (1816-1896) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680204) and Mr and Mrs Horatio Greenough Curtis (1844 - ca 1923) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680412) whose impressions went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916), by 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680302, Graphic with a link to impression #K0680303); Charles Deering (1852-1927) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680402); Albert Henry Wiggin (1868-1951) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680335); Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680342); Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), who apart from items mentioned above bought an impression from F. Keppel in 1894 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680304) and a cancelled impression in 1896 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680501); Henry Walters (1841-1931) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680408); and Harry Brisbane Dick (1855-1916) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0680419).