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The Embroidered Curtain |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46999) | |
| Number: | 451 | |
| Date: | 1889 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 239 x 161 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 10 | |
| Known impressions: | 27 | |
| Catalogues: | K.410; M.411 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (27) | ||
PUBLICATION
EXHIBITIONS
). 25 It was also shown by H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898 and 1903. 26
Impressions were included in several international exhibitions, including the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, lent by Walter Steuben Carter (1824-1904). 27 One was shown by the International Society of Sculptors, painters and Gravers in London in 1899, when Whistler was President. An art critic remarked: 'This master of the etched line - in my opinion - the greatest we have yet had - almost surpasses himself in four or five of these things. His line has never been more musical, more deft, more palpitating than in its magic of movement in the "Amsterdam", or the "Embroidered Curtain". 28
An impression was lent by Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club, Chicago in 1900 (
). 29 Yet another fine impression was sent by Whistler to the International exhibition in Dresden in 1901 (), being bought from the show by the Kupferstich-kabinett and shown again in the following year. 30
Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) lent his late impression to the annual show at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1902 (). 31
Finally impressions appeared in the Whistler Memorial shows after the artist's death; including four different impressions shown at the comprehensive Grolier Club exhibition in New York in 1904, one at the Boston show in 1904 (lent by Carter), one in Paris in 1905, and one lent by Herbert Charles Jerome Pollitt (1871-1942) to the London show in 1905. 32
25: London Dunthorne 1890 ; New York 1890a . See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.
26: New York 1898 (cat. no. 271); New York 1903b (cat. no. 236).
27: Chicago 1893 (cat.no. 2264 (1685)).
28: 'Some Thoughts at the "International" ... ', St Paul's, 27 May 1899 (GUL PC17/61).
29: London ISSPG 1899 (cat. no. 241); Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 292).
30: Dresden 1901 ; Dresden 1902 .
31: Philadelphia 1902 (cat. no. 947 [276]).
32: New York 1904a (cat. nos. 289 a-e); Boston 1904 (cat. no. 195); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 356).
SALES & COLLECTORS
), and wrote:33: GUW #06585; Heijbroek 1997 , p. 92.
34: 28 April 1890, GUW #01501.
). Wunderlich's ordered another impression on 31 July, which was sent on 11 August 1890. Later acquisitions are not always recorded fully, but they seem to have bought one in the summer of 1897 and another in 1900, all at the same price. They always got 20 per cent discount on these prices. At their request, Whistler wrote 'for Wunderlich' on a late impression, and signed it with the butterfly (). 35
36: GUW #03989.
37: 21 July [1890], GUW #13048.
38: B. Whistler to Freer, [15 May 1890], GUW #11667; W. Bell to Freer, 17 May 1890, #13794; Heijbroek 1997 , p. 91.
). 40
) and another, with delicately wiped surface tone, in the Rijksmuseum (), but the latter was acquired after Whistler's death from his executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958).41: GUW #13239.
) and a lithograph for £50.0.0 to the Kupferstich-kabinett Dresden. This impression had been exhibited in an international show in Dresden in 1901 and was shown again in the following year in a show of recent acquisitions. 42
42: Dresden 1901 ; Dresden 1902 .
43: GUW #13040.
); John Henry Wrenn (1841-1911) (); Harry Brisbane Dick (1855-1916) (); Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935) (); Margaret Selkirk Watson Parker (1867-1936) (); and George Washington Vanderbilt (1862-1914) ().