Lindsey Houses |  Freer Gallery of Art (1905.172) | |
| Number: | 161 | |
| Date: | 1876/1877 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 153 x 230 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 4 | |
| Known impressions: | 25 | |
| Catalogues: | K.166; M.162; W.136 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (25) | ||
Lindsey Houses may have been started in the winter of 1876, judging by the bare trees, and the form of the butterfly signature, but most printing was done in 1877 and it was first sold in October 1877. 1 At that time Whistler wrote to a prospective patron, J. J. Heywood,
'I know that my Etchings have a place in your valuable collection - & so I write to tell you that I have again taken up my Copper plates - & have just produced some Dry points - quite new - they are curiously delicate in quality & will consequently give very few impressions - Will you come & see them?' 2
Other London prints of similar date include Steamboat Fleet, Chelsea [155], Battersea: Early Morning [157], Price's Candle Factory [166] and Battersea Morn [174].
'I know that my Etchings have a place in your valuable collection - & so I write to tell you that I have again taken up my Copper plates - & have just produced some Dry points - quite new - they are curiously delicate in quality & will consequently give very few impressions - Will you come & see them?' 2
Other London prints of similar date include Steamboat Fleet, Chelsea [155], Battersea: Early Morning [157], Price's Candle Factory [166] and Battersea Morn [174].
2: 2 October [1877], GUW #07552.
H. Stewart Cundell reported in April 1878, 'Mr. Whistler, we are glad to learn is resuming his etching, and among his most recent plates we may mention ... "Linsey Houses," [sic] a view at Chelsea in dry-point'. 3
Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) wrote: 'This dry-point, of which Mr Avery and Mr Theobald and one or two others have impressions, was done in 1878' but he was not entirely correct - in fact it would appear Whistler was still working on the etching or promoting it in 1878. 4 Avery may well have bought his impression in 1878 or 1879, and assumed it was a recent work (
).
Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) wrote: 'This dry-point, of which Mr Avery and Mr Theobald and one or two others have impressions, was done in 1878' but he was not entirely correct - in fact it would appear Whistler was still working on the etching or promoting it in 1878. 4 Avery may well have bought his impression in 1878 or 1879, and assumed it was a recent work (
).3: 'English Etching', The Standard, London, 25 April 1878, p. 2 (GUL PC1/94).
4: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 136).