UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: wunderlich

T. A. Nash's Greengrocer's Shop

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46622)
Number: 298
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 178 x 126 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 5
Known impressions: 10
Catalogues: K.263; M.260; W.215
Impressions taken from this plate  (10)

PUBLICATION

T. A. Nash’s Greengrocer's Shop was not published.

EXHIBITIONS

It was first exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889 as 'Nash's Fruit Shop, Chelsea'. 11 It was then shown - and sold - in New York by H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1898 and 1903 and in London by Obach & Co. in 1903. 12 Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) lent an impression to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K2630303 or Graphic with a link to impression #K2630406). 13

Impressions were included in the Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death, including the Grolier Club in New York in 1904. Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) lent an impression to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905 and Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) lent one to the Rotterdam exhibition of 1906 (Graphic with a link to impression #K2630402). 14

11: Paris Exp. Univ. 1889 (cat. no. 419).

12: See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

13: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 185).

14: London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 215); Rotterdam 1906 (cat. no. 58).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold three impressions to the London print dealers Messrs Dowdeswell for £6.6.0 each on 27 July 1887, and on 30 September he sold them another. 15

In the following year Whistler sent an impression to H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York to be forwarded to Ross Revillon Winans (1850-1912), for £6.6.0. Another, at the same price, went to Knoedler & Co. for £6.6.0. 16

However, a year later, in 1889, he was selling impressions at £10.10.0 each to John Postle Heseltine (1843-1929), Samuel Joshua (1833 or 1834 - d. 1907) and Durand-Ruel, although it is not entirely clear if all these were sold or just offered. 17

15: GUW #13024, #13655.

16: G. Dieterlen to Whistler, 3 May 1888, GUW #07158; 27 July 1888, #13660.

17: 20 January, 14 June, 13 December 1889, GUW #13037, #13036, #09068 respectively.

The price seemed to be somewhat erratic, possibly because some impressions were finer than others, or to tempt dealers and collectors to buy more. In any case, on 19 May 1897 Whistler sold one to Siegfried Bing (1838-1905) for £10.10.0. 18 This may have been the impression acquired by Alfred Beurdeley (1847-1919) and - much later - by Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971) (Graphic with a link to impression #K2630302). Another impression went to Wunderlich's in 1897 for £6.6.0. 19

The prices received by Whistler were usually higher than those at auction. For instance at the sale of the collection of the late Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) at Sotheby’s, 3 March 1892 (lot 318) 'Nash's Fruit Shop' was bought by the London print dealer Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) for only £2.15.0. However, when he bought an impression directly from Whistler, shortly before the artist's death in 1903, he paid £12.12.0. 20

18: GUW #13034.

19: Wunderlich's to Whistler, September 1897: a/c of etchings delivered in summer 1897, GUW #07287.

20: 3 or 8 June 1903, GUW #13042.

One impression remained in the artist's estate and was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) (Graphic with a link to impression #K2630402). Early collectors included the New York lawyer Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) (Graphic with a link to impression #K2630303, Graphic with a link to impression #K2630406); Harry Brisbane Dick (1855-1916) (Graphic with a link to impression #K2630403); Mr and Mrs Ralph King (1855-1926) (Graphic with a link to impression #K2630z02) and the Glasgow collector James A. McCallum (1862-1948) (Graphic with a link to impression #K2630404, Graphic with a link to impression #K2630z01).