UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Château de Bridoré

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1889.8)
Number: 409
Date: 1888
Medium: etching
Size: 135 x 98 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 1
Catalogues: K.378; M.378
Impressions taken from this plate  (1)

KEYWORD

building, chateau, child, garden, mother, tree, woman standing.

TITLE

There are numerous incorrect variations on the title and spelling as follows:


'Chateau Bridosey (French Plates)' (1888, Whistler). 1
'Chateau Pridorez' (1889, Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919)). 2
'Chateau Bridorez ' (1890/1892, Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896)). 3
'Chateau Pridorez' (1900, Caxton Club). 4
'Château' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 5
'Château Bridorez, Touraine' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 6
'Château Bridorez' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 7
'Château de Bridoré' (2011, WEP).


'Château de Bridoré' is the correct name of the château, and the preferred title of the etching, rather than the variations used by Whistler and others.

1: List, [1887/1888], GUW #13233.

2: Written on Graphic with a link to impression #K3780102.

3: List, [1890/1892], GUW #12715.

4: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 259).

5: Kennedy 1902 (cat. no. 327).

6: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 378).

7: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 378).

DESCRIPTION

At left is a tree in full leaf, and a woman with a child in her arms is standing under it, to right, in the garden of a château. A small house with dormer window appears behind the woman, and the steep roof and round turrets of the château appear in the background to right.

SITE

The small village of Bridoré is south-east of Loches, in the Indre-et-Loire (central region) of France. In Whistler's day it was known as 'Le Bridoré'. The 14th century chateau was an important fortress; it has a massive 15th century tower with a steep roof and smaller round towers with conical roofs. 8

This is one of several châteaux etched by Whistler in the Loire Valley, including Château Touraine [410] andChâteau de Verneuil, Touraine [408].

8: J.- X. Carré de Busserole, Dictionnare geographique historique et biographique d'Indre et Loire de l'ancienne province de Touraine, I, Tours, 1878, pp. 425-9. See 'Photographic Walks: Castles of the Loire', www.all-free-photos.com (acc. 2011).