UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Door of the Chapel, Montrésor

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1934.557)
Number: 422
Date: 1888
Medium: etching
Size: 178 x 128 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 4
Catalogues: K.395; M.392
Impressions taken from this plate  (4)

PUBLICATION

It was never published. However, it is closely related to Whistler's unpublished 'Renaissance Set'.

EXHIBITIONS

It was first shown at Wunderlich's in New York in 1898. 11 An impression was lent by Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) to the Caxton Club in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3950102), and another by Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in Boston in 1904 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3950105). 12

Impressions were also shown at the other principal Memorial shows at the Grolier Club, New York in 1904 and the London Memorial Exhibition in 1905. 13

11: New York 1898 (cat. no. 246).

12: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 290); Boston 1904 (cat. no. 222).

13: New York 1904a (cat. no. 381); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 341).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold it for £10.10.0 at first. He sold an impression on 24 May 1889 to H. Wunderlich & Co. (Graphic with a link to impression #K3950103,) which they sold to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919); another to Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) on 23 July 1889 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3950105) and one to Knoedler & Co. on 27 July. 14

14: GUW #13056, #13660, #13046.

There is the possibility that Whistler sold another impression in 1899, under the title 'Rennaissance [sic] Doorway' to Wunderlich's for £6.6.0, although the lower price might suggest this was another etching. 15 However, it could have been the impression bought by Robert Hartshorne (d. 1927), who owned an impression (Graphic with a link to impression #K3950104) that had been with Wunderlich's at some time. 16 It was bought, probably after Harthorne's death, by Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971) who gave it to the National Gallery of Art.

15: Wunderlich's to Whistler, 24 March 1899, GUW #07305.

16: Stock no. a 23970.