UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Fishing Boats, Hastings

Impression: Colby College Museum of Art, Maine
Colby College Museum of Art, Maine
(2013.348)
Number: 163
Date: 1876/1877
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 152 x 255 mm
Signed: butterfly at left (1); replaced with new butterfly (2-3); replaced again (4)
Inscribed: 'Hastings -' at lower right
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 7
Catalogues: K.158; M.155; W.131
Impressions taken from this plate  (7)

KEYWORD

beach, boat, fishing huts, landscape.

TITLE

There are minor variations in the title, as follows:


'Hastings' (1877, Whistler). 1
'Hastings' (1887/1888, Whistler). 2
'Fishing-Boats - Hastings' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 3
'Fishing Boats, Hastings' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 4


Although Whistler's original title was 'Hastings', Kennedy's title, 'Fishing Boats, Hastings' is more descriptive and generally accepted.

1: Inscribed on copper plate.

2: List, [1887/1888], GUW #13233.

3: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 131).

4: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 158).

DESCRIPTION

In the foreground is a beach with, at the right, nets hung up to dry. Behind and to left fishing boats are drawn up on the shore. Behind these, is a row of tall fish-sheds. In the distance is a high, rounded promontory with cliffs facing the sea.

SITE

Hastings, on the Channel Coast of England. One impression is inscribed 'Hastings' (Graphic with a link to impression #K1580208). Whistler also worked in watercolour in the town in the early 1880s; Hastings [m0830] and Hastings from the cliffs [m0831] are views of the cliffs and the town below, while Hastings: fishing boats [m0832] shows the boats and fishing-huts on the beach.