Etchings Institutions search term: metropolitan museum
Gates, City, London |  Library of Congress (FP-XIX-W576, no. 283) | |
| Number: | 280 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 133 x 97 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 2 | |
| Catalogues: | K.283; M.279 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (2) | ||
PUBLICATION
Gates, City, London was not published. However, it is related to the unpublished 'Grey's Inn Set'.
EXHIBITIONS
No exhibition has been recorded.
SALES & COLLECTORS
Whistler only recorded one sale : on 18 July 1889 Whistler wrote that he only had one impression of 'Gates City' in stock. He sold what was probably this impression as 'Gates, City (London)' to the print dealers H. Wunderlich & Co. of New York on 6 April 1891 for £3.3.0. 10
One impression was recorded as owned by John Caldwell (fl. 1887-1907), and later by Harris G. Whittemore (d. ca 1937) before being acquired by the Library of Congress (
).
). A cancelled impression was probably printed in 1891 and sent to Wunderlich's, whose representative, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) visited London in June 1891, and discussed cancelling recent etchings as a means of proving that they came from a limited edition, appealing to a select clientele willing to pay higher prices. Whistler's 'secretary' William Bell wrote when : 'Mr Whistler has already destroyed a great number of the plates in question, and herewith sends you the proofs as an interesting fact of reference -
' 11 One such cancelled impression was acquired by Harry Brisbane Dick (1855-1916) and passed from his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art ().
).11: W. Bell to E.G. Kennedy, 8 June 1891, GUW #09674.