UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Recto, above; verso, below:

The copper plate of Greenhithe bears the stamp of 'B. MAIRE / PLANEUR A PARIS'. This stamp has been found on only seven extant copper plates: Greenhithe, Shipping at Liverpool [100], Sketches of Heads [138], Speke Shore [139], Battersea Morn [174], Lindsey Houses [161] and Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 2 [159]. The size of these copper plates is not identical and dates appear to range from about 1867 to 1877. Whistler could have bought several plates at the same time or different occasions when visiting Paris. However, none of the known subjects were done in Paris.

Several of these plates were executed in Liverpool but Greenhithe and Battersea: Dawn were both drawn on the Thames. They were close in size and could be considered a pair.

The copper plate was cancelled with long slightly curving diagonal lines. The cancelled plate was probably among plates bought at Whistler's bankruptcy sale by the Fine Art Society, London. It was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879.

The copper plate was probably among those acquired in exchange for lithographs from Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851), by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). 11 The plate was given by Miss Philip to the University of Glasgow in 1935.