Etchings Institutions search term: dowdeswell
The Little Mast |  Art Institute of Chicago (1934.600) | |
| Number: | 196 | |
| Date: | 1879/1880 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 269 x 189 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'First Venice Set', 1880 | |
| No. of States: | 8 | |
| Known impressions: | 50 | |
| Catalogues: | K.185; M.182; W.151 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (50) | ||
PUBLICATION
11: London FAS 1880 ; copy in GUL PC15/7.
EXHIBITIONS
). 13 In the same year, another early impression was shown in Berlin and bought by the Kupferstichkabinett (). The Little Mast was not included in the original 1880 catalogue for the show at the Fine Art Society in London, although there is a copy of the catalogue with the title added in ink, replacing 'The Bridge'. However, it was The Bridge that appeared in the show 14 , and The Little Mast that was published in the 'First Venice Set'.
13: New York 1881 (cat. no. 156); see REFERENCES : EXHIBITIONS.
14: London FAS 1880 ; copy in GUL PC15/7.
'At the service of critics of unequal sizes.' 15
15: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 36).
16: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 46).
). 17 Others were on sale by Dunthorne in Liverpool in 1893, at Obach & Co. in London (1903) and F. Keppel & Co. in New York (1904). It also appeared in public exhibitions, in Philadelphia (1881) and Wolverhampton (1902). Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent a late impressions to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 () and James Cox-Cox (ca 1849- d.1901) to the International in Glasgow in 1901. 18
After Whistler's death, impressions were shown at the Whistler Memorial Exhibitions, at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904; in London, lent from the Royal Collection in 1905 (
); in Paris, also in 1905; and finally lent by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) in Rotterdam in 1906 ( or ). 19
17: New York 1898 (cat. no.130).
18: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 132); Glasgow 1901 (cat. no. 229).
19: New York 1904a (cat. no. 152); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 151); Rotterdam 1906 (cat. no. 62).
SALES & COLLECTORS
). In 1882 an impression was sold by Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892) to the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin (). 20 Woldemar von Seidlitz (1850-1922), Dresden, acquired what was described by Whistler as a 'very early proof', and gave it to the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden (). Another proof - which was described by Whistler as the 'only proof' - was sold by the artist on 28 April 1887 to Messrs Dowdeswell, London art dealers, for £5.5.0. 21
20: Inventory books, Kupferstichkabinett Berlin.
21: GUW #13020.
). Another early collector was Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891). After his death, an impression from his collection was auctioned at Sotheby's, 3 March 1892 (lot 236) and bought by the London print dealer Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) for only £1.8.0.
By contrast, Whistler sold an impression on 24 December 1902 to Dunthorne for £12.12.0. 22
22: GUW #13040.
). US collectors included Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924), who bought a set from Wunderlich's in 1890 (
); Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), who bought one impression from Wunderlich's in 1898 () and two from Keppel, one in 1894 () and another, earlier impression, in 1902 (); Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916), who bought one, possibly from Wunderlich's (stock no. a 10248), before 1900 (); Margaret Selkirk Watson Parker (1867-1936) (); Thomas Jefferson Coolidge jr (1863-1912) (); Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919) (); and Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) ().