UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

As with a number of other Venetian subjects, Whistler began The Balcony in etching, with the main elements of the composition fully expressed. He then employed both etching and drypoint to refine small areas of the plate, most notably the figures and shading within the window openings above the balcony and the two figures outside and just within the open doorway. While several alterations were made to the window area - and to the man standing in the boat in front of the doorway - the figure within the doorway was reworked over and over again. The standing woman not only shifted from side to side in the opening, but her costume, hair and pose also changed many times.

Foul biting that appeared during the development of the plate is evidence that, for certain changes, Whistler applied acid directly to small areas of the plate without covering the copper with an etching ground. Spots and granular patches on the image represent droplets and larger pools of acid that came in contact with the plate during the reworking process.

There are many different states of The Balcony and numerous working proofs of these states. One such 'trial proof' - the second state - was printed in black ink on ivory laid watermarked paper and drawn on in black ink, amending the figures of the gondolier and the woman in the doorway (). Whistler kept several of these proofs, including one each of the seventh (), tenth () and eleventh state (). A couple of late impressions were actually cut up, preserving only the central area of the doorway (, ).

Whistler started printing The Balcony for Messrs Dowdeswell and Thibaudeau in March 1886. He delivered in all 1093 prints for the complete 'Second Venice Set'. 11 The printing of The Balcony is well documented. Whistler would print on average only one or two impressions a day, since he was also printing impressions from the other plates. Some of the records are undated; for instance on separate occasions five, two, and again five impressions were recorded as delivered, but some records are duplicated, and these may be recorded elsewhere. 12

Documents record one impression delivered on 2 April 1886, five on 28 July 1886 and one on 20 August 1886. 13

These records do not exactly correspond to the most complete record of impressions received by Dowdeswell's, which list five delivered on 22 July 1886 and two on 20 August; one on 2 April (it is not quite clear if this is 1886 or 1887); six on 28 June, two on 2 July, twelve on 7 July and twenty-five on 16 July 1887, a total of 53. 14

The edition was completed and the cancelled copper plate and an impression from it were delivered with the final 25 impressions on 16 July 1887. 15 The whole edition of the 'Second Venice Set' was completed by July, the last plates being The Balcony and The Garden [194].

Early impressions were printed in black ink on ivory () and buff (, () laid papers. The fifth state was usually printed in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper (, , ), one with a Hunting horn in shield watermark (). The sixth state was in black ink on light-weight buff laid () and 'antique' (pre-1800) laid (). Seventh states were both in black on ivory laid () and in brown ink on 'antique' laid ().

Some of the fifth and sixth state impressions are neither trimmed nor signed by Whistler (, , ) including one that may have been acquired by the young Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) when Whistler was deciding on the composition of the 'First Venice Set' for the F.A.S. (). Way described his early experience of assisting Whistler:

'Shortly afterwards he started on the proving of the set of plates for the Fine Art Society, who had taken a first-floor suite of two rooms for him at the north-west corner of Air Street and Regent Street, in the Quadrant over a stationer's shop. ... I was working in the schools at South Kensington then, but as Whistler wanted to have some one with him, I had that privilege during the whole of this historic time, fetching and carrying, and preparing his materials, and generally making myself useful. Among other things, I had to see to the proper damping of the old Dutch paper, and its careful brushing to remove any loose hairs or other matters before it was used for printing on, and to press the proofs very carefully and thoroughly, that they might be quite flat before being seen. He had not then taken to his later custom of cutting off the margins of the paper beyond the subject.' 16

Most impressions were trimmed to the platemark and signed on the tab with a butterfly and 'imp.' to show that Whistler had printed them. Early impressions sometimes bear an 1880 or 1881 butterfly (, ). Other impressions were both trimmed and signed a few years later, probably in 1886, when it was decided that The Balcony should be included in the Twenty-six Etchings (the 'Second Venice Set') (). Some seem to have been signed very carelessly by Whistler or perhaps by someone else (, ).

It is not certain but it was probably from the eighth state on that impressions were being delivered to Messrs Dowdeswell & Thibaudeau for publication in the Twenty-six Etchings in 1886.

Many of the later impressions were printed both in dark brown and black ink. Impressions in brown ink included ones on ivory laid paper (, , ); ivory laid with horned crown watermark () and 'antique' laid with an 'SH' countermark (). In addition, many impressions of the later states were printed in black ink on a variety of papers including ivory Asian laid (); ivory laid (, , , ); ivory laid, possibly with 'IV' countermark (); cream laid with Strasbourg Lily 'LVG' watermark (); and cream medium-weight laid paper (, ). Many of these later impressions would have been among those delivered in July 1887.