UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: isspg

The Little Putney

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1938.1919)
Number: 187
Date: 1879
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 124 x 201 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower right (2-final)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 23
Catalogues: K.180; M.177; W.226
Impressions taken from this plate  (23)

TECHNIQUE

The composition is in etching, with only the signature in drypoint.

PRINTING

Comparatively few impressions were printed; a few first states (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800101, Graphic with a link to impression #K1800102, Graphic with a link to impression #K1800103), and twice as many second (e.g. Graphic with a link to impression #K1800204) and third states (e.g. Graphic with a link to impression #K1800302, Graphic with a link to impression #K1800306) are now in public collections.
Early states were printed in black ink on laid paper, two of the sheets obviously removed from books, one with a 'Pro Patria' watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800102) and another with an Arms of Amsterdam watermark, and an old inscription in Greek on the verso (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800103).
Some later impressions were printed on buff (probably ivory discoloured to buff) laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800203, Graphic with a link to impression #K1800205). The final state - sometimes richly inked and employing retrousage effects - is again on various papers including cream 'antique' (pre-1800) blue-edged laid paper from a book (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800207); off-white laid watermarked with a crown over 'GR' and laurel branches (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800304); cream 'antique' laid with a faint watermark, possibly 'L BUSIERE' (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800305); off-white laid with the watermark of a lion over a bow (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800302); and fine light-weight ivory laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800308). A few are on Asian laid papers (Graphic with a link to impression #K1800303, Graphic with a link to impression #K1800z02).