Etchings Institutions search term: dowdeswell
En Plein Soleil |  Art Institute of Chicago (1934.620) | |
| Number: | 11 | |
| Date: | 1858 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 101 x 136 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler' upside-down at upper left; 'Whistler.' at lower left | |
| Inscribed: | 'Imp. Delatre. Rue St. Jacques. 171.' at lower right (3) | |
| Set/Publication: | 'French Set', 1858 | |
| No. of States: | 3 | |
| Known impressions: | 44 | |
| Catalogues: | K.15; M.12; T.4; W.6 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (44) | ||
STATE
Three states are known.
State 1
Signed 'Whistler' (the 's' reversed and the 'e' indistinct) upside down at upper left and 'Whistler.' at lower left below the blades of grass.
There are remnants of earlier work on the plate including faint diagonal and vertical lines at left and right, a head on the right, and the head of a sheep, also at right.
The example above was annotated in graphite pencil in an unknown hand, '1er Etat. avec les cheveux blonds.'
State 2
The woman's hair is more densely shaded; various scratches and stray lines appear including a V-shaped scratch to lower left of the parasol, a short squiggle over the tower on the distant building, a vertical scratch through the upper right corner of the parasol and a short dark scratch through the cloud at right.
State 3
Inscribed 'Imp. Delatre. Rue St. Jacques.171.' (the 't' in 'St' raised and the 'J' reversed) at lower right. The upside down signature and test marks in the upper left corner are faint, either removed or worn away.
On most impressions, the platemark has slightly rounded corners. However, the tips of the plate corners were clipped off before late impressions were printed, and the platemark corners on those prints are blunt diagonals (see 
).
).Published in the 'French Set' in this state.