Etchings Institutions search term: obach
Nocturne: Salute |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46886) | |
| Number: | 203 | |
| Date: | 1879/1880 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 155 x 230 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower left (3-final) | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 10 | |
| Known impressions: | 14 | |
| Catalogues: | K.226; M.223; W.199 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (14) | ||
PUBLICATION
EXHIBITIONS
9: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 43).
"There are many things in a painter's art which even a photographer cannot understand." Laudatory notice in Provincial Press.'
10
10: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 43).
Nocturne: Salute was rather neglected by critics in 1883. The critic of the Daily News thought it 'Among etchings that will be, or should be, admired' and called it 'beautiful' but the Bazaar dismissed it, saying that the 'nocturnes of Shipping, Dawn, Furnace, or Salute, are something more than disappointing.' 11 However, John Forbes-Robertson, in a thorough and insightful review of the show, commented on the technique: 'The liquid quality ... which Mr. Whistler gives to water, as in "Nocturne Salute", is produced, we believe, by pressing the fleshy part of the palm deftly over the surface of the plate. There are many mysteries connected with the printing which Mr. Whistler holds in his keeping, and brings successfully into play as occasion requires.' 12
11: Anon., 'Fine Art', Mr Whistler's Exhibition', Bazaar, 28 February 1883 (GUL PC6/43).; Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Etchings', Daily News, 20 February 1883 (GUL PC25/20).
12: 'Mr. Whistler, His Arrangement in White and Yellow, His Etchings and His Catalogue', Pictorial World, 31 March 1883 (GUL PC 8/8).
), also in 1903. 13
Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) lent an impression to an exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (). 14
After the artist's death impressions were shown in several of the Whistler Memorial Exhibitions. A grand total of four impressions of different states was exhibited at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904, and two were also shown in Boston in the same year, lent by Francis Bullard (1862-1913) and Frank Gair Macomber (1849-1941) (
), as well as one in London, lent by King Edward VII, in 1905 (). 15
13: London Obach 1903 (cat. no. 170); see REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.
14: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 177).
15: New York 1904a (cat. nos. 201a,b,c, d); Boston 1904 (cat. nos. 154, 155); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 199).
SALES & COLLECTORS
), but has not been located. Messrs Dowdeswell bought an impression from Whistler on 28 April 1887 for £6.6.0. 17 On 3 May 1888 H. Wunderlich & Co. of New York bought a 'rare state' for an extremely high price, £21.0.0. 18
), another from Thomas Way (1837-1915) in 1905 () and an early impression from E. Gottschalk (dates unknown) in 1908 (). An impression from the Royal Collection was sold through Wunderlich's and Obach & Co. to Margaret Selkirk Watson Parker (1867-1936) in 1906 and was bequeathed to the University of Michigan Art Museum (). Other early collectors included Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) (); Stanhope Alexander. Forbes (1857-1947) (); Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) (); Frank Gair Macomber (1849-1941) (); Ralph King (1855-1926) and his wife ().