UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Balcony was published by Messrs Dowdeswell and Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892) with A Set of twenty-six etchings of Venice (the 'Second Venice Set') in 1886. Messrs Dowdeswell gave one of these sets to the British Museum in 1887 (see ).

Whistler delivered in all 1093 prints and was paid £2.10.6 for printing each dozen prints, working out at £0.4.4 1/2d per impression. 17

The Balcony was first shown in the Fine Art Society, London in 1883, with the probably entirely imaginary quotation appended to the catalogue entry: '"His colour is subversive" - Russian Press.' 18

Reviews of the 1883 show were mainly complimentary. In contrast with The Two Doorways [221], Bazaar described it as 'of another and lighter style, but essentially good.' The Queen considered it 'good both in tone and line.' 19 In contrast with Nocturne [222], another critic wrote: 'the rich velvety quality of the lattice over the door is very delightful, while the delicately suggested figure, and the dark coloured water beneath, make a very strong picture.' 20 And the Saturday Review, comparing it with a London scene, Alderney Street [246], described it as: 'a work at once broad and delicate, a work in strange contrast to such sketchy scratchy stuff as "Alderney Street", with its phantom horses and cabs and figures.' 21

Later shows included the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888, to which one impression was lent by Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924). 22 Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) organised a panel including this etching at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent one to the show organised by the Caxton Club, Chicago in 1900 (). 23 James Cox-Cox (ca 1849- d.1901) lent an impression from a complete set to the International Exhibition in Glasgow in 1901, and Laurence W. Hodson (1864-1933) lent one to an International in Wolverhampton in 1902 (). 24

Other impressions appeared in print dealers' shows, at H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1883, 1898 and 1903, and with Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) of F. Keppel & Co. in 1902. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought the impression from Wunderlich's in 1898 (). 25

After Whistler's death, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) lent an impression to one of the Whistler Memorial Exhibitions, in Boston in 1904 (possibly ), and King Edward VII lent another to the London show in 1905 (). 26

In August and September 1882 Whistler sold impressions to Wickham Flower (b. ca 1836), to the print dealer, Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) and to Queen Victoria at £6.6.0 each. 27

After 1886 most sales would have been through the print publishers Messrs Dowdeswell and Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892), or passed by them to other print dealers. Thibaudeau, for instance, sold a set to Wunderlich's of New York who sold it to Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) in 1890. ( Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) usually bought his etchings from Dowdeswell () and his impression later went to Clarence Buckingham (1855-1913).

Other early collectors included Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) (); Jules Gerbeau (d. 1906), Laurence W. Hodson (1864-1933) and Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971) (); George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) (); Harry Brisbane Dick (1855-1916) (); John Henry Wrenn (1841-1911) (); Atherton Curtis (1863-1944) (); Ralph King (1855-1926) and his wife (). Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought an impression from Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) in 1887 () and a later impression, originally from the collection of Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910), from Wunderlich's of New York on 9 November 1898 (). Königl. Kupferstichkabinett Dresden bought an impression () from P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, in 1897.

At auction, prices for individual prints varied considerably. The print dealer Gustave Lauser (b. ca 1841) bought one at Christie’s, 27 November 1888 (lot 176) for £2.2.0, while Edmund F. Deprez (1851-1915) paid £6.6.0 for an impression from the collection of the late Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) at Sotheby’s, 3 March 1892 (lot 272). In 1894 at the J.M. Gray sale an impression went for a good price, £5.0.0. 28 At auction the etching was sometimes sold in the set. For instance, a set 'in a folio' from the collection of Mrs Edward Fisher of Abbotsbury, Newton Abbot, was sold at Christie’s, 13-14 July 1897 (lot 316) for £82.0.0.

After Messrs Dowdeswell undertook to publish the etching, Whistler was not supposed to sell individual impressions, although he could legitimately keep and eventually sell his 'printer's proofs'. Since there were a lot of states, he would have kept quite a lot of such proofs. Two such 'trial proofs' were acquired by Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) or Thomas Way (1837-1915) and sold in 1905 to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (, ).

It is difficult to separate these from sales of similar etchings, however. For instance he sold a 'Balcony ' to the Fine Art Society in 1893 for £6.6.0, but this could be Balcony, Amsterdam [446]. 29

Whistler definitely sold one to Wunderlich's in 1897 for the very good price of £18.0.0, and one to Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851), the London print dealer, for £12.12.0 in 1903. 30 There were still four impressions in the studio at his death, and these were given or bequeathed by his executrix Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) to the University of Glasgow (, , , ), with a cancelled impression ().