Windows, Bourges |  Freer Gallery of Art (1903.166) | |
| Number: | 398 | |
| Date: | 1888 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 149 x 80 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 2 | |
| Known impressions: | 3 | |
| Catalogues: | K.400; M.399 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (3) | ||
Whistler went to the Loire valley with a selection of copper plates. The larger ones mostly came from Hughes & Kimber, but Windows, Bourges is one of several plates measuring 149 x 80 mm that have no maker's stamp; they may therefore have been acquired locally or in Paris. Six plates of similar size (the range is from 147 x 80 mm to 149 x 81 mm) were etched in Tours, Bourges and Loches (Courtyard, Rue P. L. Courier, Tours [391], Rue des Bons Enfants, Tours [392], Doorway, Stables - Loches [416], Children, Amboise [432], Booth, Market Place, Loches [425], Market Women, Loches [423], Tour Saint Antoine, Loches [414] and Windows, Bourges [398]).
The plate was in Whistler's studio at his death. It was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line across the lower left corner; there is slight pitting along the top edge and centre of the design.