UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

According to Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), Robert Barr was drawn on the etching plate by Whistler but etched by Sickert. It is possible that Sickert also worked on it.

It was not etched or printed in Whistler's life time. Sickert wrote in a letter to The Times in 1908:

'A bitten plate, in pure line, with no drypoint, it is in no way dependent on the artist's own printing as were, for instance, the Nocturne Palaces, the Doorway, or the little Venice, where tone had to be, as it were, painted on to the plate for each impression.

My apprenticeship to Whistler, in etching, and in the printing of etchings, goes back to 1883 ... I am convinced that the spirited and practised hand that traced the lines on the plate we are discussing traced them in order that they should be seen.' 13

On one impression several notes are written, probably by Sickert: 'Robert Barr etched by Whistler at 13 Robert Street Cumberland Market in 1894', 'Limited to 45 impressions', 'No.14', and finally, 'Sickert' (). Sickert's edition was numbered and some impressions still have the numbering on the verso ('5', ; '10', ; '14', ; '23', ; '39', ; and '42', ). Only a small proportion of these impressions have been located, and in some cases the number has been removed or is not visible. These impressions were printed in black ink on thick brown paper.

According to Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932), writing in 1910: 'This plate ... came into the possession of Mr. Walter Sickert, and was bitten-in several years after Whistler's death. An edition of forty-five impressions was published by Messrs. Baillie and Gardiner, in London, in 1908. The plate was then cancelled.' 14