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Windows opposite Hotel, Bourges

Impression: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
(1943.3.8638)
Number: 397
Date: 1888
Medium: etching
Size: 100 x 67 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 2
Catalogues: K.401; M.400
Impressions taken from this plate  (2)
Windows opposite hotel, Bourges dates from 1888. On Whistler's honeymoon in 1888 he made four etchings that have Bourges as part of the title: this, Hôtel Lallement, Bourges [396], Windows, Bourges [398], and Notre-Dame, Bourges [402]. The honeymoon trip came in two stages, broken by a brief visit to London early in September.
About 22 September 1888 the artist wrote from Tours to his sister-in-law Helen Whistler:
'here we are - "in the Garden of France" - ... sitting down on benches or borrowing chairs that we may, at our ease, look at the lovely old doorways - and marvelous carvings / ... Mean while we are thinking of Bourges - have you ever been there? - I fancy it must be amazing -'. 1

1: GUW #06713.

It is not clear how long they actually stayed in Bourges but a few days later they were back in Tours, having 'been to Bourges'. 2

2: Whistler to J. R. Rodd, [25/30 September 1888?], GUW #05348.