UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Beach, Ostend

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46978)
Number: 353
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 82 x 185 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 4
Catalogues: K.354; M.347
Impressions taken from this plate  (4)

PUBLICATION

The Beach, Ostend was not published.

EXHIBITIONS

Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) lent an impression to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3540104). 10

One was also shown after Whistler's death at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904. 11 No other shows have been recorded.

10: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 244).

11: New York 1904a (cat. no. 268).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold an impression of what he then called 'Beach' on 17 November 1887 to the London print dealer, Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) for £5.5.0. 12 He sold another to H. Wunderlich & Co. of New York on 3 May 1888 for £4.4.0. 13 Then on 14 May he apparently sold Wunderlich's an impression for £5.5.0 (noted in their stockbook as £5.5.0 with 20% discount). 14 It is not entirely clear if this was a separate transaction. His last recorded sale was to the Fine Art Society, London, on 27 March 1889 for £5.5.0. 15

Of the extant impressions, one was bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1906 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3540104) and the other by the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Graphic with a link to impression #K3540111). Posthumous impressions were commissioned by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who left two to the University of Glasgow (Graphic with a link to impression #K3540110, Graphic with a link to impression #K3540105).

12: GUW #13016.

13: Wunderlich's to Whistler, #17, GUW #07158.

14: GUW #13659; stock book a14404.

15: Whistler to Ernest George Brown (1853/1854-1915), GUW #13000.