UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: obach

The Long Seats, Gray's Inn

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46912)
Number: 283
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 82 x 179 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 5
Catalogues: K.299; M.293
Impressions taken from this plate  (5)

PUBLICATION

It was never published, but is considered part of the 'Grey's Inn Set'.

EXHIBITIONS

It was rare, and rarely exhibited. Impressions were exhibited by H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898 and 1903, and at Obach & Co. in London in 1903. 8

Impressions were shown in the comprehensive Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death, at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904, and in London in 1905. 9

8: New York 1898 (cat. no. 199); New York 1903b (cat. no. 209); London Obach 1903 (cat. no. 230).

9: New York 1904a (cat. no. 308); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 286).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold an impression of 'Long Seats Gray’s Inn' to the London print dealer, Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) on 21 December 1887 for £6.6.0. 10 He sold an impression to Ross Revillon Winans (1850-1912) through Wunderlich & Co. of New York on 3 May 1888 for £10.10.0, which seems a rather steep mark-up. 11 Later he sold another to Wunderlich's for the original price of £6.6.0 in 1900. 12

Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought one from Obach's in London in 1902 (Graphic with a link to impression #K2990102). One was bequeathed by Whistler to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who in turn bequeathed it to the University of Glasgow (Graphic with a link to impression #K2990102). Among later collectors, Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971) gave an impression to the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (Graphic with a link to impression #K2990105) and Claude Wampler (1895) to Syracuse University Art Galleries (Graphic with a link to impression #K2990106).

10: GUW #13017.

11: G. Dieterlen to Whistler, 3 May1888, GUW #07158.

12: Wunderlich & Co. to Whistler, 6 April 1900, GUW #07322.