Etchings Institutions search term: athenaeum
Thames Warehouses |  Art Institute of Chicago (1917.524) | |
| Number: | 46 | |
| Date: | 1859 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 77 x 204 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler' at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | '1859.' at lower right | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Thames Set', 1871 | |
| No. of States: | 5 | |
| Known impressions: | 63 | |
| Catalogues: | K.38; M.37; T.42; W.35 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (63) | ||
STATE
Five states are known before cancellation.
State 1
Signed 'Whistler 1859.' at lower right.
A stern of a barge is etched at lower left; faint lines suggest another barge (or alternate positions for the second barge) and a pontoon or another barge at lower right.
In the impression reproduced, shadows are added in pen and wash on the ship at left and the barge in the centre, and on the figure on that barge; the smoke in the distance is also touched with wash, and a small sailing boat is roughly outlined at right, partly concealing the underlying lines of a barge or pontoon. This impression is also trimmed within the platemark, particularly at the top edge.
State 2
Signed 'Whistler 1859.' at lower right.
The barge at lower left has been removed; lines in the water have been extended to left, and the bow of the sailing barge in front of the building at left has been redrawn; there are prominent burnishing marks and some foul biting on and round the barge or pontoon at lower right; long, fine drypoint lines are added behind the distant shipping and curving lines on the smoke; there are several spots of foul biting at upper left.
State 3
The burnishing has been removed and the foul biting reduced at the bottom and right; new spots of foul biting appear at upper and lower right.
State 4
The foul biting at upper left has been removed, and the rigging in that area is nearly invisible; a spot of foul biting in the smoke at upper right has been removed and the gap filled with short drypoint strokes; foul biting at the edges has been removed but a few new spots have appeared; the ghostly figure in the second barge is even fainter.
Published in this state in the 'Thames Set'.
State 4 (corroded a)
Spots of corrosion appear at lower left and at the top of the plate.
State 4 (corroded b)
A conspicuous spot of corrosion appears at the top of the plate, to right of centre.
State 5
The plate has been partly repaired (the steel facing having been removed); the slanting line at lower left (formerly a barge) has been removed.
State 5 (cancelled)
Cancelled with a central horizontal line and four vertical lines.