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Black Lion Wharf |  Freer Gallery of Art (1898.271) | |
| Number: | 54 | |
| Date: | 1859 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 153 x 229 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler' at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | '1859.' at lower right | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Thames Set', 1871 | |
| No. of States: | 4 | |
| Known impressions: | 104 | |
| Catalogues: | K.42; M.41; T.35; W.40 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (104) | ||
PUBLICATION
19: 'A Whistle for Whistler', Punch, 17 June 1871.
20: [F.G. Stephens], The Athenaeum, 26 August 1871, pp. 280-81. I am grateful to M.Hopkinson for this reference.
).EXHIBITIONS
After publication in 1871, Black Lion Wharf was shown by James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) in Liverpool and by Whistler himself, in London in 1874. Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) lent an impression to the Union League Club in New York in 1881. 23
It starred in a number of public and international shows, including Philadelphia in 1879, Berlin in 1881 (one was bought by the Kupferstichkabinett in 1882,
), Buffalo in 1901 and Wolverhampton in 1902. An impression was shown at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888, lent by Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924). George W. Bramhall, of Orange, N. J., lent an impression to the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) sent one to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (), and Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1902. 24
At print dealer's shows, impressions were exhibited by Craibe Angus in Glasgow in 1879, by H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1898 - bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (
) - and 1903, and F. Keppel & Co. in New York in 1904. 25
Impressions were also shown in the principal Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death. Mansfield lent his impression to the Boston exhibition in 1904, two impressions appeared at the Grolier Club in New York in the same year, and single impressions in Paris in 1905, and, lent by King Edward VII to the London Memorial in 1905. 26
21: 'The Royal Academy', The Athenaeum, 19 May 1860, p. 685. London RA 1860 (cat. no. 902)
22: London Thomas 1861 ; London Int. 1862 . Paris Soc. Nat. 1862 .
23: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 499); London Pall Mall 1874 (cat. no. 10); New York 1881 (cat. no.58 ).
24: Glasgow 1888 (cat. no. 2552-29); Chicago 1893 (cat. no. 2217 (1634)); Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 38); Philadelphia 1902 (cat. no.947 (40)); see REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.
25: Glasgow 1879 ; New York 1898 (cat. no. 37); New York 1904a ( cat. no. 42).
26: Boston 1904 (cat. no. 34); New York 1904a ( cat. no. 42); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 40); Paris Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 310).
SALES & COLLECTORS
). It is clear that Whistler counted this as a working proof and that the second state was what he considered the first state.). 27 Two years later, in 1863, Whistler sold another, asserting that it was a '1st state', to the British Museum (). 28
He probably sold or gave one to George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909), since it is dedicated by Whistler to Lucas (
), and to William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916), again stating that it was '1st. State. / Early proof -' (). Other early impressions of the second state went to Avery in New York (), Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) in London (), Jan Veth () and Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888) () in the Netherlands (). In 1882 Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892) sold a second state to the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, as part of a group of 301 prints for £685.7.3 (). A large edition of over forty impressions was made of the fourth state. One fourth state was sold by another dealer, Otto Gutekunst (ca 1865-after 1939), to the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden, in 1897, for 85 DM (
). One was owned by Henry F. Sewall (1816-1896), and after his death was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (); Joseph Pennell (1860-1926), gave one as part of the E. R. and J. Pennell Collection to the Library of Congress, Washington, DC (); and Alexander Constantine Ionides (1810-1890) bequeathed a fine impression to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1901 ().27: V&A Register of Prints, p. 32.
28: Whistler to W. H. Carpenter, British Museum, Letterbook 1863, GUW #11109.
29: 28 December 1888, GUW #13076.
A few impressions of the cancelled plate were sold in an album - one of these was bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1896 from Frederick Keppel & Co., New York (
). Whistler himself did not own a cancelled set, but one such set came to auction in London and was acquired by the Hunterian Art Gallery to add to their important Whistler collection, which is mainly based on the artist's estate ().30: Sotheby's, 22 April 1887 (lot 189); 12 December 1889 (lot 782); and 3 March 1892 (lot 90); Christie's, 13-4 July 1897 (lot 308).