Etchings Institutions search term: british museum
The Miser |  Hunterian Art Gallery (50166) | |
| Number: | 17 | |
| Date: | 1858/1859 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 120 x 161 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler -' at lower left (7) | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 7 | |
| Known impressions: | 12 | |
| Catalogues: | K.69; M.69; T.62; W.65 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (12) | ||
The copper plate has no maker's mark. It is the same size as a vertical format etching, Reading by Lamplight
[37], which dates from 1858.
There are numerous marks on the verso of the plate, made with both blunt and sharp instruments, as if Whistler was testing his etching tools. For instance, there is a horizontal score made with a sharp instrument; a score across the width made with a blunt instrument; other scores include parallel waves at the top left corner and irregular shaped marks at top right and lower left.
The plate was cancelled with diagonal, crossed and zig-zag lines. It may have been among cancelled plates sold at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy, and later retrieved from Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). It was given to the University of Glasgow by Miss Philip in 1935.