UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Published as 'Old Hungerford' in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames, (the 'Thames Set'), by Ellis & Green in 1871.

The set, including this etching, was reviewed enthusiastically by F.G. Stephens:

It was first shown at the Société des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1862, and a year later at the Royal Academy in London. 13 In 1873 it was among six etchings lent by James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) to a major exhibition in Vienna. Thomas wrote 'Of this plate, I only know one proof (excluding the published copies), which is now at the Vienna Exhibition, having been lent by Mr. Anderson Rose.' 14 In 1874 Rose lent his collection to several venues including Liverpool. Another impressions was exhibited by Whistler, in his first one-man show in London, in the same year. 15

It was also shown by clubs for connoisseurs and collectors like the Union League Club in New York, to which Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) lent a 'Rare proof; very delicate etching' (). 16 Impressions were exhibited in Philadelphia in 1879 and, lent by Howard Mansfield (1849-1938), in 1902. 17 Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent one to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (). 18

Possibly the bustling river scene with its steam ships and ferries, bridges and factories, appealed to industrialists, for an impression was lent by Messrs Mawson, Swan & Morgan to the Royal Mining, Engineering, and Industrial Exhibition (International and Colonial), Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1889 and one was included in the Art and Industrial Exhibition in Wolverhampton in 1902. C. Lewis Hind wrote appreciatively 'how good it is suddenly to come upon thirty etchings by Mr. Whistler, some of the Thames and Venice pieces, and other little masterpieces, so small yet so sufficient'. 19

It was included in print dealer's exhibitions such as those of Craibe Angus in Glasgow, and both Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) and Wunderlich's in New York. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought an impression from the latter in 1898 (). 20

After the artist's death, impressions were shown at the Whistler Memorial Exhibitions in Boston (organised by the Copley Society) and New York (at the Grolier Club) in 1904, and one was lent from the Royal Collection to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905. 21

In 1875 Whistler mentioned 'The oyster smacks old Hungerford Market' , which may have been this etching, as sent on approval to William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916), priced at £2.2.0. 22 Two years later he again listed 'Oyster Smacks' in a sale to the Fine Art Society. The invoice is annotated with a cryptic code (a combination of asterics and dots): 'Oyster Smacks . . . . 6 ' ' . . . . ¦ 6-6-0'. 23 This may be a record of impressions printed, mounted or sold. It is not clear whether he was selling six impressions at £1.1.0 or one at £6.6.0 or if this was the sixth of eight impressions printed.

Impressions of the first two states are very rare and appealed to a select group of major collectors, including Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924), who acquired a first state (). Second states went to George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) (), Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) ( , which has not been located); and Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) (), the latter ultimately going to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1898. Freer had a third state already, bought in 1888 from Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) () and from the same source he acquired a cancelled impression in 1896 ().

The main edition was printed in the third state, and some three dozen impressions have been located. Public collections bought good representative impressions. The British Museum was the first, in 1874 (). E.D. Wallace (fl. 1871-1887), American, poet, novelist and writer on art, reported in considerable detail on a visit to the British Museum to see Whistler's works:

'let us go to the temple of art and science, and, provided with a "reader's ticket," and "special admission to the print room," we find in a row of elegantly bound folio cases, labeled "Etchings of British Artists," the jealously guarded works of Mr. Whistler, of Baltimore. ... The very first glance at Mr. Whistler's etchings is sufficient for a lover of art to learn that every picture is copied from nature direct, and each subject has its characteristic point brought out by a master hand. Whether a river scene in open daylight, or a cabaret by lamplight, ...all are fully expressed, boldly or delicately, as the fancy may seize the artist, and every touch of the needle leaves a striking detail of the perfect composition of a rare genius. In the etching of "Hungerford Bridge," on the Thames, showing the old bridge and the new iron bridge for the railway to Charing Cross, the foreground represents a mass of water in the midst of the river, the effect being produced by a few strokes that betoken a wonderful independence of the artist's style - no frittering of detail where the idea is once arrested and fixed. This etching was loaned by Mr. Anderson Rose to the Vienna exhibition.There are twenty views at least of the Thames and its bridges, some full of life and movement - steamboats puffing and paddling up and down the stream, crowds of foot-passengers eagerly pushing their way over the river thoroughfares and vessels loading and unloading their freight on the banks and wharves of the river.' 24

Following the British Museum's good example, after many years, other museums added impressions to their collections. the Städel Museum, Dresden, bought one from Emil Richter in 1894 (); Constantine Alexander Ionides (1833-1900) bequeathed a good example to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1901 (); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, bought one in November 1897 () and Obach & Co., London print dealers, sold another to the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, for £9.0.0 in 1902 ().