The Menpes Children |  Freer Gallery of Art (1909.117) | |
| Number: | 300 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 68 x 101 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | M. Menpes, 'Whistler as I Knew Him', London, 1904 | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 12 | |
| Catalogues: | K.261; M.257; W.212 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (12) | ||
The Menpes Children probably dates from the summer of 1886. The garden looks leafy and apparently warm enough for young children to sit out. It is not easy to date, but this date is consistent with the butterfly signature (reproduced below).
Walter, son of Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938), was born on 21 September 1886, and although it would be convenient to identify him as the baby sitting on the grass, this would suggest a date in the spring or summer of 1887, which is unlikely. The other Menpes children were older (Dorothy, born in 1883, is also seen, wearing a sun-bonnet, next to the baby).
On 4 February 1887 Messrs Dowdeswell requested impressions of the etchings listed by Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) including this. 1 This helps to confirm that the etching dates from the previous summer or autumn of 1886. Wedmore's book was out by August 1886, although it is just possible a revised edition went out in the spring. 2
1: GUW #00888.
2: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 212).