Etchings Institutions search term: hunterian art gallery
London Bridge |  Freer Gallery of Art (1898.358) | |
| Number: | 172 | |
| Date: | 1877 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 159 x 235 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower right (3-final) | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 6 | |
| Known impressions: | 24 | |
| Catalogues: | K.153; M.150; W.123 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (24) | ||
London Bridge dates from 1877. The first record of a sale is in October 1877. 1 Furthermore, The Academy reported in November 1877:
1: [10 October 1877], GUW #12734.
'Among comparatively or quite recent etchings and dry-points
executed by Mr Whistler, there is a plate of London Bridge which is by
no means inferior to the best of his river-side views and studies on the
waters of the Thames. The bridge is seen from below it, near the
water's edge, and at no great distance, the sweep of one great arch
being drawn, and all the massiveness of the masonry indicated, with
freedom and force of hand. The composition, too, whether or no it has actually preoccupied the artist, has the appearance of having been more carefully balanced than in some other plates by the same skilled but unequal etcher with which the artistic public is already familiar.' 2
2: Anon., The Academy, 8 November 1877, p. 343; 'London Bridge by Whistler', The Academy, 17 November 1877, p. 480.
This news item was picked up by The Belfast News, which reported on 19 November 1877: 'Among comparatively or quite recent etchings and drypoints executed
by
Mr. Whistler there is a plate of London Bridge, which is by no means
inferior to the best of his river side views and studies on the
waters
of the Thames.'
3
3: Thanks to Martin Hopkinson for this and many other references.