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The Long Seats, Gray's Inn |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46912) | |
| Number: | 283 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 82 x 179 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 5 | |
| Catalogues: | K.299; M.293 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (5) | ||
KEYWORD
children, game, garden, Inns of Court, chair, tree, woman seated.
TITLE
Variations on the title are as follows:
'Long Seats - Grays Inn' (1887, Whistler). 1
'The Long Seats' (1887/1888, Whistler). 2
'Long Seats The. Grays Inn ' (1890/1891, Whistler). 3
'Seats, Gray’s Inn' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 4
'The Long Seats, Grays Inn' is based on Whistler's original titles.
'Long Seats - Grays Inn' (1887, Whistler). 1
'The Long Seats' (1887/1888, Whistler). 2
'Long Seats The. Grays Inn ' (1890/1891, Whistler). 3
'Seats, Gray’s Inn' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 4
'The Long Seats, Grays Inn' is based on Whistler's original titles.
1: Written on 
.
2: List, [1887/1888], GUW #13233.
3: List, [1890/1891], GUW #13236.
4: Kennedy 1902 (cat. no. 286).
DESCRIPTION
In the foreground, at right, two young women are seated on a long garden-seat. The one at left is looking away from the viewer, across the broad walk, and the other turning back and to left, with her left arm hanging over the back of the chair. To right of her a girl kneels on the seat facing left. Facing them is a young woman holding a toddler in a big floppy bonnet. A small child sits on the ground to left of the chair and a small boy at right holds a hoop. On a similar seat, on the far side of the broad walk, two women sit sewing or knitting at left, and two more with children, at right. Trees, foliage and four windows are slightly indicated in the distance.
SITE
Grey's Inn Gardens, 2011.
Photo © M.F.MacDonald, Whistler Etchings Project.
Gray's Inn, London, was a sheltered green oasis in the city of London, where members of the legal profession had rooms. The grounds and the broad walks lined with long wooden seats were popular with nursemaids and mothers with children.