Etchings Institutions search term: deprez
Greenwich Pensioner | ||
Number: | 40 | |
Date: | 1859 | |
Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
Size: | 99 x 136 mm | |
Signed: | 'Whistler.' at lower right | |
Inscribed: | 'Greenwich - 1859.' at lower right | |
Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
No. of States: | 2 | |
Known impressions: | 34 | |
Catalogues: | K.34; M.33; T.15; W.32 | |
Impressions taken from this plate (34) |
TECHNIQUE
It is in both etching and drypoint. Bold jagged and zig-zag lines indicate the landscape and the man's clothes; lighter, delicate cross-hatching was added on the face and some details of the clothes. The horizontal shading added in the second state provided a slightly muted boundary to the landscape, as did the foul biting at the corners, which could easily have been removed.
PRINTING HISTORY
Most impressions are of the second state. It was usually printed in black ink, the first state Later impressions are on a variety of papers including, for instance, off-white wove paper (); ivory () and cream (, ) Japanese laid paper; ivory laid western watermarked paper () and thick, soft, ivory laid paper ().
There may have been a print-run of about twenty for the 'Cancelled Set' (i.e. , ). Impressions are in black ink, one on heavy-weight off-white wove paper (), and most on laid paper, one being on a 'modern' (post-1800) laid paper with the partial watermark of a Strasbourg Lily in a shield over 'WGL' (), another on ivory laid (), and one on cream laid paper with a partial Van Gelder watermark ().