UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The copper plate has the oval maker's stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' The plate was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line across the upper left corner.

It is a small plate, close in size to several others used in 1887, including Wimpole Street [279], The Little Hat [366], Gypsy Baby [373] and Children's Fruit Barrow [347].

Both 'The Little Picnic' and 'The Baby Grays Inn' were recorded in a list of copper plates in Whistler's studio, and both are recorded with the same size, 4 x 2 5/8" (which is 103 x 68mm). 8 This is close in size to two etchings, the vertical etching, The Baby, Gray's Inn and a horizontal etching of a similar subject, The Menpes Children [300]. Since the copper plate for The Baby, Gray's Inn remained in Whistler's estate, while that for The Menpes Children did not, it has been assumed that 'The Little Picnic' actually refers to The Baby, Gray's Inn and was listed twice by mistake in Whistler's list. However, it remains possible that it refers to another etching that has not been located.