Etchings Institutions search term: fine art society
The Tow-Path |  Freer Gallery of Art (1891.12) | |
| Number: | 325 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 50 x 84 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 2 | |
| Catalogues: | K.254; M.250 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (2) | ||
Recto, above; verso, below:
This is one of Whistler's smallest etchings. It bears the maker's oval stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' It is close in size to
several plates including two landscapes - Dieppe
[251] and
Little Chelsea (Memorial)
[315] - and two figure subjects, Two studies of women's heads
[331] and
Little Nude Figure
[330].
The plate was cancelled with crossed diagonal lines, possibly in 1891. Whistler discussed with Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) the possibility of printing one or two impressions from cancelled plates so that prospective buyers could see that no further prints were possible. Whistler's 'secretary' William Bell wrote when Kennedy visited London in June 1891: 'in accordance with his intentions expressed to you the other day, Mr Whistler has already destroyed a great number of the plates in question, and herewith sends you the proofs as an interesting fact of reference -
' 8
8: W. Bell to E.G. Kennedy, 8 June 1891, GUW #09674.
The plate was in Whistler's studio at his death. It was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935.