The Little Mast |  Art Institute of Chicago (1934.600) | |
| Number: | 196 | |
| Date: | 1879/1880 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 269 x 189 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'First Venice Set', 1880 | |
| No. of States: | 8 | |
| Known impressions: | 50 | |
| Catalogues: | K.185; M.182; W.151 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (50) | ||
The copper plate has no maker's mark. It was a different size from any other plate and may have been made for Whistler in Venice. 6
6: Getscher 1970.
The Little Mast was published in Venice, a Series of Twelve Etchings (the 'First Venice Set') by the Fine Art Society, London, in 1880. It was first cancelled with diagonal lines, and then with a large butterfly surrounded by radiating lines.
In 1902 the cancelled copper plate was bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), who bequeathed it to the Freer Gallery of Art. 7
7: Acc. No. 1902.130.