UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Garden Seat, Gray's Inn

Impression:

()
Number: 284
Date: 1887
Medium: etching (?)
Size: unknown mm
Signed: unknown
Inscribed: unknown
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 0
Catalogues: K.-; M.-; T.-; W.-
Impressions taken from this plate  (0)

KEYWORD

Inns of Court, landscape, park, seat.

TITLE

This etching was listed during stocktaking in Whistler's studio, as follows:

'The Garden Seat' (1887/1888, Whistler). 1
'Greys. Inn - The Garden Seat' (1890/1892, Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896)). 2

The title recorded by Whistler's wife, with added punctuation, has been accepted as helping to identify the subject clearly. Thus the title becomes 'The Garden Seat, Gray's Inn'.

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

2: List, GUW #12715.

DESCRIPTION

Not known. It was probably similar to the view in The Long Seats, Gray's Inn [283].

SITE

Comparative image
Photograph © M.F.MacDonald, Whistler Etchings Project, 2011.
Gray's Inn was a sheltered precinct in the City of London, where members of the legal profession had rooms. The walks and grounds were popular with nursemaids and mothers with children. There were - and still are - long wooden seats along each side of the broad walks.

DISCUSSION

This was probably related to Whistler's 'Grey's Inn Set', which includes The Steps, Gray's Inn [282] and The Long Seats, Gray's Inn [283]. The latter, reproduced below, presumably showed a similar subject to the missing etching.
Impression: K2990103
The Garden Seat, Gray's Inn is in the same lists as these Gray's Inn etchings and is clearly listed as another work.