Return to Tilbury |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46944) | |
| Number: | 311 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 133 x 97 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 4 | |
| Known impressions: | 18 | |
| Catalogues: | K.327; M.321; W.244 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (18) | ||
KEYWORD
jubilee, coast, naval review, sailing ship, sea, ship, steamboat, warship.
TITLE
It has almost always been known by the same title, as for example:
'Return to Tilbury' (1887, Whistler). 2
'Naval Review Return to Tilbury' (1890/1892, Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896)). 3
'Return to Tilbury' (1899, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 4
'Return to Tilbury' (1887, Whistler). 2
'Naval Review Return to Tilbury' (1890/1892, Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896)). 3
'Return to Tilbury' (1899, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 4
DESCRIPTION
Two- and three-masted ships, and several smaller sailing and steam boats are approaching a distant low coast-line. There are some clouds in the sky, and a few waves indicated on the sea, which takes up most of the bottom half of the plate.
SITE
At sea off Tilbury in the county of Essex, on the south coast of England. After the Naval Review the troopships and other ships carrying visitors and officials sailed to several ports along the south coast between Southampton and Portsmouth. The Pennells commented:
'The subjects show that they were rapidly done. Whistler, carrying the small plates about with him, sketched the subjects he found on copper as other artists sketch on paper. The whole set of ten [was made] during the Naval Review, with a plate at Tilbury, on his embarking, and another at Portsmouth on landing. The prints of this Series, as we know the exact space of time in which they were done, prove strikingly his wonderful power of giving a momentary impression in a few lines on a piece of copper, for they suggest, in extraordinary fashion, the picturesque aspect of the great naval spectacle.' 5
5: Pennell 1908, II, pp. 81-82.