UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Under Old Battersea Bridge is particularly difficult to date. In the collection of Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) is an impression of Under Old Battersea Bridge that is inscribed '1879.' () but the date appears to have been written over another date, and probably not by Whistler. However, this impression was signed by Whistler with a pencil butterfly dating from slightly earlier, possibly between 1876 and 1878.

Although Under Old Battersea Bridge shows the same bridge as Old Battersea Bridge [188], the two are etched in a totally different manner, and Old Battersea Bridge definitely dates from later, in the late summer of 1879. Under Old Battersea Bridge is much closer in composition to a lithograph dating from July 1878, The Tall Bridge [c012], but it is even bolder, with an extraordinarily daring close-up view of the bridge framing the distant shore of Chelsea and Chelsea Suspension Bridge.

The technique is highly experimental, with its deeply etched outlines and manipulated foul-biting or open-bite. It has technical similarities to Limehouse [48] and to a lesser extent to W. Jones, Lime-Burner, Thames Street [55], both of which are dated 1859. The copper plate is very close in size to a number of etchings, including ones dated 1859-1861 (Soupe à trois sous [64], Bibi Valentin [34], Old Hungerford Bridge [76]) and from the mid- to late 1870s (Sleeping Girl [127], Nude Reclining [126], The Desk [129], Wych Street, London [176], Steamboat Fleet, Chelsea [155] and Wych Street, London [176]).