UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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High Street, Brussels

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1924.661)
Number: 343
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 127 x 178 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper left and right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 7
Catalogues: K.358; M.357; W.254
Impressions taken from this plate  (7)

PUBLICATION

High Street, Brussels was not published officially, but is considered part of a 'Brussels Set'.

EXHIBITIONS

The first recorded exhibition was by the New York Etching Club at the National Academy of Design in 1889. 8 It was also shown by H. Wunderlich & Co., print dealers in New York, in 1898. An impression was lent by Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3580202). 9 Another was shown at Obach & Co. in London in 1903.

Impressions were included at the Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death: in Boston in 1904, lent by Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3580206); 10 at the Grolier Club in New York, also in 1904; and Paris and, lent by John Charles Sigismund Day (1826-1908), in London in 1905. 11

8: New York 1889b .

9: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 220); see REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

10: Boston 1904 (cat. no. 181).

11: New York 1904a (cat. no. 274); Paris Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 407); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 254).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold an impression on 17 November 1887 to the London print dealer, Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832), for £8.8.0. 12 One was offered at this price to Craibe Angus & Son in Glasgow on 16 December 1887 but it is not certain that it was sold. 13 Whistler then sold impressions on 1 and 10 February 1888 to Messrs Dowdeswell for £10.10.0. 14

Shortly afterwards, on 2 July 1888, he sold another to Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) of F. Keppel & Co. at the same price. 15 This was bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in the following year (Graphic with a link to impression #K3580204).

At auction the price was somewhat lower. An impression was sold from the collection of the late Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) at Sotheby's, 3 March 1892 (lot 333) to another London print dealer, Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) for £4.5.0. This impression has not been located, indeed it is difficult to match the surviving impressions with the sales records.

12: Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) GUW #13016.

13: C.J.W. Hanson to Craibe Angus, GUW #01959,

14: In [7 February 1888], GUW #13026; #13027.

15: GUW #13063.

Whistler sold an impression for £10.10.0 on 3 May 1888 to H. Wunderlich & Co., who were his main US representatives. 16 On 18 July 1889 Whistler recorded that he had one impression in stock. 17 However, either he located or printed more. He sold Wunderlich's another in September 1897 for £6.6.0 and two more in 1900 and 1901 for £8.8.0 each. 18

American collectors, who may well have bought from Wunderlich's, included John Henry Wrenn (1841-1911), who bought the first state (Graphic with a link to impression #K3580103); Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3580206) and Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3580202).

16: Wunderlich's to Whistler, GUW #07158.

17: List, GUW #13235.

18: Wunderlich's to Whistler, 1897 a/c, GUW #07287; 6 April 1900, #07322; 16 April 1901, #07330.