UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Tour Saint Antoine, Loches

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1889.9)
Number: 414
Date: 1888
Medium: etching
Size: 149 x 81 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 5
Catalogues: K.392; M.389
Impressions taken from this plate  (5)

PUBLICATION

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 However, it is closely related to Whistler's unpublished 'Renaissance Set'.

EXHIBITIONS

Impressions of Tour Saint Antoine, Loches were lent by both Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) and Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3710102 and Graphic with a link to impression #K3920103). 9 It was also exhibited in a print dealer's show, at Obach 7 Co. in London in 1903. 10

Impressions were shown in the comprehensive Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death, at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904, and in the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905. 11

9: Chicago 1900 (cat. nos. 258a, 258).

10: See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

11: New York 1904a (cat. no. 376); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 338).

SALES & COLLECTORS

The price of Tour Saint Antoine, Loches was usually £6.6.0. On 25 January 1889 the London art dealer, Walter Dowdeswell (1858-1929) sent Whistler back an impression of 'Tower St. Antoine' that had been returned by a client, 'saying "the prices are too much for me".' 12 However Whistler sold impressions on 27 March and 21 May 1889 to the Fine Art Society in London. 13 Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) bought the first of these (it is listed as '(No. 3)' in the letter to Ernest George Brown (1853/1854-1915), and is so numbered on the verso (Graphic with a link to impression #K3920105). Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought the other F.A.S. impression three days later (Graphic with a link to impression #K3920103).

12: GUW #00912.

13: Whistler to E.G. Brown, GUW #13000, #13001.

In July 1889 Whistler sold an impression to Knoedler & Co., this being No. 4 in a list of 18 sold. 14 This was probably the etching bearing a 'No 4' on it, acquired by first Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916), and then sold - possibly through H. Wunderlich & Co. of New York - and acquired by Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3920106). Lathrop replaced it with another - possibly also handled by Wunderlich's - by 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3710102).

14: Whistler to R. F. Knoedler, 20 July 1888, GUW #13080.

Meanwhile on 6 April 1891 Whistler sold an impression direct to Wunderlich's, who were his chief U.S. agents. 15 He later sold one described as 'Street & tower' to Wunderlich's for the same price of £6.6.0. This could possibly be The Clock Tower - Amboise [429], but that etching was normally sold at £8.8.0, not at £6.6.0. 16

An impression of Tour Saint Antoine, Loches originally owned by Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) was bought by Wunderlich's and sold later to Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971), who gave it to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1943 (Graphic with a link to impression #K3710104).

15: GUW #13097.

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