Nocturne | ||
Number: | 222 | |
Date: | 1879/1880 | |
Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
Size: | 202 x 294 mm | |
Signed: | no | |
Inscribed: | no | |
Set/Publication: | 'First Venice Set', 1880 | |
No. of States: | 9 | |
Known impressions: | 59 | |
Catalogues: | K.184; M.181; W.150 | |
Impressions taken from this plate (59) |
PUBLICATION
EXHIBITIONS
11: London FAS 1880 (cat. no. 4).
12: 'Mr. Whistler's Venice Etchings', Daily News (London), 2 December 1880.
13: Bell 1987; MacDonald 2001, p. 95.
The Fine Art Society exhibited the 'First Venice Set', including Nocturne, in 1880, 1883 and 1892. 1883 reviews were fairly complimentary. San Biagio [237] and Nocturne were compared both in Building News and the Saturday Review. The Building News commented 'The lights and reflections on the water, as in the "Nocturne Riva" (8) are smudges of brown tint; the latter picture [Nocturne] certainly has feeling, and the reflection of vessels and distant buildings is admirable.' 16 The Saturday Review criticcommented at some length on the two etchings:
14: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 8).
15: World, 8 December 1880, quoted in Whistler 1883, cat. no. 95; Whistler 1890, p. 95.
16: 'Mr Whistler's Etchings', Building News, 23 February 1883 (GUL PC6/42).
17: 'Mr Whistler's Exhibition', Saturday Review, 24 February 1883 (GUL PC 25/32).
Impressions were included in shows organised by clubs, like the Union League Club in New York in 1881, to which one was lent by Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) (), 19 and the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900, when a 'selected proof' was lent by Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) (). 20 It was popular - as were other Venetian prints - in international exhibitions, and was shown, for instance, in Berlin in 1881 (); Chicago in 1893, lent by Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) (); Glasgow in 1901, lent by James Cox-Cox (ca 1849- d.1901); and in Wolverhampton in 1902. 21
Finally, impressions were shown in the Memorial Exhibitions held after Whistler's death. Four were exhibited in the comprehensive Grolier Club exhibition in New York in 1904, and two in the Copley Society exhibition in Boston in the same year, one lent by Mansfield and the other by Mrs Edwin B. Holden. 22 Another impression was shown in Paris in 1905 and one was lent from the Royal Collection to the London Memorial show, also in 1905. 23
18: New York 1883; New York 1898 (cat. no. 129). See REFERENCES : EXHIBITIONS.
19: New York 1881 (cat. nos. 156-67 'Views in Venice').
20: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 131).
21: Chicago 1893 (cat. no. 2239); Glasgow 1901 (cat. no. 234).
22: New York 1904a (cat. no. 151); Boston 1904 (cat. no. 151).
23: London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 150).
SALES & COLLECTORS
25: Sotheby's, 3 March 1892 (lot 235); Christie's, 13-4 July 1897 (lot 303).