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Custom House

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1903.35)
Number: 179
Date: 1878
Medium: etching
Size: 84 x 190 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 8
Catalogues: K.150; M.148; W.128
Impressions taken from this plate  (8)
Custom House dates from 1878. Whistler inscribed one impression '2nd proof - July 7, 1878' (Graphic with a link to impression #K1500111), and it is assumed that the first proof, which has not been located, dated from the same year.
It was considered by Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) to be an etching of the mid-1870s, and it has similarities to such etchings as Chelsea Wharf [97] and The Old Swan Brewery, Chelsea [105]. 1

Custom House was also printed in 1887. Indeed, most impressions were signed in 1887, and it was first recorded as being sold in April 1887. 2

1: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 150).

2: Whistler to Dowdeswell's, 28 April 1887, GUW #13020.