Marchand de Vin, Paris |  Hunterian Art Gallery (49907) | |
| Number: | 438 | |
| Date: | 1888/1893 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 82 x 201 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 3 | |
| Catalogues: | K.421; M.429 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (3) | ||
Marchand de Vin, Paris probably dates from between 1888 and the early 1890s. The butterfly signature is consistent with this date. By 1892 Whistler was living in Paris at 110 rue du Bac.
In subject and format it is similar to Antony's Print Shop, Rue de Seine [477] and Newspaper-Stall, Rue de Seine [474], which date from about this period. Whistler frequented small neighourhood bars in Paris, as is shown in a letter written to his wife in 1891, when he was obviously very happy and slightly drunk:
'I am talking to you Chinckie" - at breakfast - ! - ... But after my bath - ... and of course the Coiffeur's - I came away from the Coiffeurs completely wonderful! - ... I combined the solitude of the occasion with the always latent sense of sax pence, and instead of the Boulevards came down to our little Marchand de vin in the Place Gaillon - you remember - where I have done "extremely well" - Indeed as I look in the glass, I fancy that you would say that I have rather "silly eyes"! -' 1
1: [11 June 1891], GUW #06591.