UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Recto, above; verso, below:

The copper plate is close in size to that for Greenhithe [173]. It bears the stamp of 'B. MAIRE / PLANEUR A PARIS'. This stamp has been found on only seven extant copper plates: Shipping at Liverpool [100], Sketches of Heads [138], Speke Shore [139], Battersea Morn, Greenhithe [173], Lindsey Houses [161] and Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 2 [159]. The size of these copper plates is not identical but ranges from Battersea Morn is the smallest at 150 x 225 mm to 231 x 155 mm. The dates appear to range from about 1867 to 1877.

Several of these plates were executed in Liverpool but The Thames towards Erith and Battersea Morn were both drawn on the Thames.

Whistler could have bought several plates at the same time or on different occasions when visiting Paris or ordered them to be sent to him from Paris. 12

This plate was given by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It is not known if she inherited it from Whistler but it is more likely that it was sold at the time of his bankruptcy and later retrieved by Miss Philip from the Fine Art Society or from Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851). The plate was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line.