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Annie, Seated

Impression: British Museum
British Museum
(1872-07-13-402)
Number: 32
Date: 1858/1859
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 130 x 97 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.-' at lower left
Inscribed: ' "Annie-" ' at lower centre (2-final)
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 58
Catalogues: K.30; M.29; T.50; W.24
Impressions taken from this plate  (58)

PUBLICATION

Annie, Seated was not published.

EXHIBITIONS

Two impressions were lent by Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) to the show at the Union League Club in New York in 1881, listed as ' “Annie” / Sitting figure. Trial proof; rare.' and 'The same. With added work.' (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300108, Graphic with a link to impression #K0300231). 10

In fact it was rarely exhibited, though impressions were for sale in print dealers' shows, at H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898, bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300102, Graphic with a link to impression #K0300203), and in 1903, as well as at Obach & Co. in London in 1903 and F. Keppel & Co. in New York in 1904. 11

An impression belonging to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) was shown in the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (either Graphic with a link to impression #K0300102, or Graphic with a link to impression #K0300103, or Graphic with a link to impression #K0300203). 12

Impressions were also shown in the Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death, including the Grolier Club in New York in 1904. Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) lent one to the Boston Memorial in 1904 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300106 or Graphic with a link to impression #K0300107) and King Edward VII to the London show in 1905. 13

10: New York 1881 (cat. nos. 35-6).

11: New York 1898 (cat. no. 23). See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

12: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 24).

13: New York 1904a (cat. no. 26); Boston 1904 (cat. no 17); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 24).

SALES & COLLECTORS

The British Museum bought an impression of the first state in July 1868 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300104) and two later impressions from Edmund Thomas (1842-1883) or Percy Thomas (1846-1922) in July 1872 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300209, Graphic with a link to impression #K0300208). 14 William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916) owned a final state that was inherited by Rachel Alexander (b. 1876) who sold it to the B.M. in 1973 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300228).

James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) had two states of Annie, Seated, sold at Sotheby's, 27-9 June 1876 (lots 725). Prices at auction results were really low. At the sale of the collection of Philippe Burty (1830-1890) in 1876, a first state of 'A little girl seated' went for £2.2.0 and a second for only £0.7.0, possibly both bought by James John Heywood (1827-1887). 15 As 'Girl, seated in a chair', one failed to make its modest reserve of £0.4.0 at Christie's in 1881. 16

14: B.M. Register of Purchases ... 1872.

15: Sotheby's, 1 May 1876 (lots 923-924).

16: Christie's, 23 March 1881 (lot 193).

However, prices recovered in 1887, at the John W. Wilson (dates unknown) sale, when a first state brought £7.7.0, and a second, £1.1.0, bought by the print dealers Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) and Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892) respectively. Subsequent prices were lower: £0.16.0 for a first and £0.10.0 for a second state at the sale of the collection of Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) in 1892, bought by the print dealers Deprez & Gutekunst, and by Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) of F. Keppel & Co., respectively, and £1.4.0 for another first state at Christie's in 1892, also bought by Deprez. 17

Two impressions of the first state, owned by John W. Wilson (dates unknown) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300103) and Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300102), were bought through H. Wunderlich & Co. by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1891 and 1898 respectively. One first state was owned by Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300108) and one was owned in turn by several distinguished collectors, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938), Harris G. Whittemore (d. ca 1937) and finally Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300106). Freer also bought the second state, originally from Haden's collection, from Wunderlich's (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300203). Avery also owned a third state, which was signed by the artist (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300231).

17: Sotheby's, 22 April 1887 (lots 178, 412); 3 March 1892 (lots 69, 70).

Other collectors included James A. McCallum (1862-1948) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300205); Mrs T. H. Riches (dates unknown) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300210); Antonius Wilhelmus Mari Mensing (1866-1936) of Frederik Muller & Co. (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300219); Ernest Stephen Lumsden (1883-1968) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300214); and Charles Deering (1852-1927) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300202).
Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) of F. Keppel & Co. was publisher, donor and print-dealer. He had a large edition printed from the copper plate. He gave an impression of the final state to the Whistler House Museum in Lowell, MA (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300235), sold one (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300240) that was later acquired by Syracuse University Art Museum, and bequeathed one the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300226).

In the 1960s Sears, Roebuck & Co. invited the actor Vincent Price to acquire original art works for their Fine Art Section. The Vincent Price Collection first went on sale in October 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and expanded to stores nationwide. It was a great success with the general public. Special catalogues were issued in 1963 and 1964, and in 1966, the Sears Vincent Price Gallery of Fine Art was opened in Chicago. The Vincent Price Collection was discontinued in 1971. 18

In an instructional film for Sears-Roebuck employees, Vincent Price described (in his seductive voice, with slight undertones of Edgar Allen Poe) his acquisition of some 2000 works, saying 'There is no excitement in the world like the excitement of owning an original work of art', and added that art is 'the ultimate in home furnishing!' 19

The Vincent Price Collection included a number of late impressions of Whistler's Annie, Seated. They were sold to collectors and collections all over the USA. One was given by Thelma R. Rosen to the Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA in 1986 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300z07).

Many have since been sold by auctioneers, art- and book-dealers and can be viewed online. One, with a label giving the original stock number GE 17475 and price tag of $40, was recently at Quinn's Auction Galleries in Falls Church, VA. 20 In 2012 Larry D. Laster in Winston-Salem, NC, sold one with a similar label, which gave the Sears stock number GE 16201 and the same original price of $40. 21 Feoli Fine Art owned another Vincent Price impression, on blue tinted paper. 22 One, described as on vellum, was at Grogan & Co., Dedham, MA, in 2011. 23

18: http://www.searsarchives.com (accessed February 2012).

19: The Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art, Classic TV Commercials, http://www.archive.org (acc. Feb. 2012).

20: 5 March 2011 (lot 132)..

21: Laster #1096719, sold on http://www.ebay.com on 21 January 2012 for $1000 (acc. Feb. 2012).

22: http://www.feolifineart.net (acc. Feb. 2012).

23: Grogan & Co. 21-2 May 2011 (Lot 212); also Cowan's Auctions, 12 March 2009; May Fine Art Auction, 11 May 2005 (Lot 23418).