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Limehouse

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1888.33)
Number: 48
Date: 1859
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 128 x 204 mm
Signed: 'Whistler' at lower right
Inscribed: '1859' at lower right
Set/Publication: 'Thames Set', 1871
No. of States: 6
Known impressions: 82
Catalogues: K.40; M.39; T.39; W.37
Impressions taken from this plate  (82)

STATE

Six states are known before cancellation.

State 1

Impression: K0400101
Signed and dated 'Whistler, 1859.' at lower right, on the barge.
The composition is complete. There are short vertical lines extend below the heavy shading on the side of the barge's hold in the foreground.

The impression reproduced has not been located. It appears to have a smear of ink at upper right to left of the bow-fronted building. The reproduction is not entirely clear and some changes described in State 2 below - the burnishing and light shading in the sky - may in fact have been present in the first state. 15

15: Wedmore wrote: 'Mr Anderson Rose also had an impression before the work on the barges in the distance to the left.' Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 37). It is not clear what he meant.

State 2

Impression: K0400102
Light slanting lines shade the area below the heavy vertical shading in the barge's hold; diagonal lines outline the reflections of the posts at lower left; there are light horizontal drypoint lines behind the shipping at left and extensive burnishing marks in the sky.

State 3

Impression: K0400204
The vertical lines and light slanting shading have been reduced, and slightly slanting lines cross and extend the darkest shading on the barge; new drypoint lines are added to the posts and their reflections; the signs of burnishing are mostly removed.

State 4

Impression: K0400307
Slanting drypoint lines, both left-to-right (\\\) and vice versa, depict clouds between and above the tall masts.
Published in the 'Thames Set' in 1871 in this and the subsequent state.

State 5

Impression: K0400304
The drypoint lines in the sky have faded or been reduced; it is not certain that this is a new state in the strict definition of the word, but it does look quite different with the paler sky.
Published in the 'Thames Set' in 1871 in this and the previous state.

State 6

Impression: K0400303
The corners of the plate appear to have been trimmed, and are slightly rounded.

State 6 (cancelled)

Impression: K0400402
Cancelled with crossed diagonal lines.
The drypoint sky has mostly disappeared.