Amsterdam, from the Tolhuis |  Freer Gallery of Art (1898.327) | |
| Number: | 99 | |
| Date: | 1863 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 134 x 211 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler' at lower right (1-final); butterfly at lower right (7-final) | |
| Inscribed: | '1863. / à Amsterdam - Tolhuis. - -' at lower right | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 8 | |
| Known impressions: | 26 | |
| Catalogues: | K.91; M.91; T.82; W.82 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (26) | ||
The etching was worked on between 1863 (which is the date etched on the copper plate) and 1878 when Whistler touched up and signed it, possibly with the intention of offering it to the Gazette des Beaux-Arts.
The etching was started when Whistler was in Amsterdam from 4 August until about 17 August 1863 with Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910). Mansfield points out, 'On the impression of this state in the Avery Collection Mr Avery wrote: "With Haden."' (
). 1
). 1 1: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 91).
An impression of the first state from the collection of Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891), was inscribed by Whistler with a date that unfortunately is almost illegible: it may read '2 ... (Oct 12)'. This may mean that Whistler was printing the etching in London in October 1863, but could, of course, be of a later date. ().
).Mansfield discussed the late addition of a butterfly: 'The addition of the butterfly indicates that probably the changes in the last three states were made as late as 1873.' 2 However, the last date for the etching is considerably later, about 1878.
2: Ibid.
It was definitely printed in 1879 and again in 1889 (see PRINTING).