The Balcony | ||
Number: | 202 | |
Date: | 1879/1880 | |
Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
Size: | 298 x 203 mm | |
Signed: | butterfly at upper left | |
Inscribed: | no | |
Set/Publication: | 'Second Venice Set', 1886 | |
No. of States: | 19 | |
Known impressions: | 56 | |
Catalogues: | K.207; M.204; W.177 | |
Impressions taken from this plate (56) |
PUBLICATION
Whistler delivered in all 1093 prints and was paid £2.10.6 for printing each dozen prints, working out at £0.4.4 1/2d per impression. 17
17: Dowdeswell to Whistler, invoice 16 July 1887, GUW #00891.
EXHIBITIONS
Reviews of the 1883 show were mainly complimentary. In contrast with The Two Doorways [221], Bazaar described it as 'of another and lighter style, but essentially good.' The Queen considered it 'good both in tone and line.' 19 In contrast with Nocturne [222], another critic wrote: 'the rich velvety quality of the lattice over the door is very delightful, while the delicately suggested figure, and the dark coloured water beneath, make a very strong picture.' 20 And the Saturday Review, comparing it with a London scene, Alderney Street [246], described it as: 'a work at once broad and delicate, a work in strange contrast to such sketchy scratchy stuff as "Alderney Street", with its phantom horses and cabs and figures.' 21
Later shows included the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888, to which one impression was lent by Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924). 22 Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) organised a panel including this etching at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent one to the show organised by the Caxton Club, Chicago in 1900 (). 23 James Cox-Cox (ca 1849- d.1901) lent an impression from a complete set to the International Exhibition in Glasgow in 1901, and Laurence W. Hodson (1864-1933) lent one to an International in Wolverhampton in 1902 (). 24
Other impressions appeared in print dealers' shows, at H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1883, 1898 and 1903, and with Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) of F. Keppel & Co. in 1902. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought the impression from Wunderlich's in 1898 (). 25
After Whistler's death, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) lent an impression to one of the Whistler Memorial Exhibitions, in Boston in 1904 (possibly ), and King Edward VII lent another to the London show in 1905 (). 26
18: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 32).
19: 'An Arrangement in White and Yellow', The Queen, 24 February 1883 (GUL PC 25/24).
20: Unidentified press-cutting, GUL PC4/19.
21: 'Mr Whistler's Exhibition', Saturday Review, 24 February 1883 (GUL PC 25/32).
22: Glasgow 1888 (cat. no. 2552-23)
23: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 157).
24: Glasgow 1901 (cat. no. 224); Wolverhampton 1902 (cat. no. 141).
25: New York 1898 (cat. no. 156). See REFERENCES : EXHIBITIONS.
26: Boston 1904 (cat. no. 139); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 177).
SALES & COLLECTORS
After 1886 most sales would have been through the print publishers Messrs Dowdeswell and Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892), or passed by them to other print dealers. Thibaudeau, for instance, sold a set to Wunderlich's of New York who sold it to Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) in 1890. ( Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) usually bought his etchings from Dowdeswell () and his impression later went to Clarence Buckingham (1855-1913).
28: 'J.M. Gray sale', The Academy, 17 November 1894, p. 405.
29: E.G. Brown to Whistler, 18 April 1893, #01259.