UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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The Tiny Pool

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1903.34)
Number: 167
Date: 1876/1878
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 99 x 66 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower right (2-final)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 22
Catalogues: K.173; M.170; W.73
Impressions taken from this plate  (22)

TECHNIQUE

The original composition was drawn boldly and etched deeply, with details and shading added later in both etching and drypoint. By the final state the drypoint had faded considerably.

PRINTING

The first state was printed in black ink, one impression on ivory Japan paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1730101) and another on ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1730102). No impression of the second state has been located (Graphic with a link to impression #K1730201).
There was a print-run of at least a dozen impressions of the third state. In most of these the butterfly is rather faint, and the drypoint shading is faded (Graphic with a link to impression #K1730302). It is possible that these were printed at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy - or as an attempt to stave off bankruptcy - in 1877/1878. One was printed in black ink on cream laid paper with a Vryheyt watermark, and this is one of the few that can be traced back to Whistler's lifetime (Graphic with a link to impression #K1730303). Of two other impressions that may well be lifetime impressions, one is on ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1730305) and the other on cream Japanese paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1730302). Most were printed on ivory laid paper (i.e. Graphic with a link to impression #K1730308). However, they may have been printed posthumously.