Battersea Reach |  Freer Gallery of Art (1893.72) | |
| Number: | 96 | |
| Date: | 1863 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 134 x 209 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler.' at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | '1863. - ' at lower right | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 19 | |
| Catalogues: | K.90; M.90 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (19) | ||
Recto, above; verso, below:
The copper plate is close in size to Amsterdam, from the Tolhuis [99], and like that, bears the maker's stamp of 'HUGHES AND KIMBER / MANUFACTURERS / RED LION PASSAGE / FLEET STREET / LONDON' on the verso.
It is marginally larger than another Hughes & Kimber plate, The Silk Dress [151], and several unstamped later plates, such as The Sail [98]. Whistler bought a number of plates from Hughes & Kimber in 1863 (see also Weary [93], which is a little smaller, and the larger plate, Brushing the Hair [94]).
The cancelled copper plate was probably among plates bought at Whistler's bankruptcy sale by the Fine Art Society, London. It was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879.
The copper plate was probably among those acquired from Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851), by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), in exchange for lithographs. 7 The plate was later given by Miss Philip to the University of Glasgow in 1935.
7: Note by R. Birnie Philip, inserted in the album, Hunterian Art Gallery.