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Bibi Lalouette

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1890.2)
Number: 33
Date: 1859
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 227 x 151 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.' at lower right
Inscribed: '1859.' at lower right
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 69
Catalogues: K.51; M.51; T.30; W.30
Impressions taken from this plate  (69)

STATE

Two states are known before damage, restoration and cancellation of the plate.

State 1

Impression: K0510102
Signed 'Whistler.' (the 't' is not crossed) and inscribed '1859.' at lower right.
The composition is complete. There are light sketches of the boy's face at lower left and a woman's face at lower right, upside down.

State 2

Impression: K0510206
Additions in drypoint include curls and shading on the hair, patches of shading on the sleeve and back of the blouse, long, light horizontal lines in the background to left and right of the child, and several slightly curved horizontal lines on the edge of the bed or cushion at lower left; the heads at the bottom are partly removed, but vary in visibility, depending on the inking of the plate.
In the early impression reproduced above there is a diagonal scratch across the sleeve. However, this was largely removed or does not show in other impressions, such as the one reproduced below.
Impression: K0510219

State 2 (damaged)

Impression: K0510218
There is a hooked scratch across the front of the blouse.
This might be a light cancellation mark; it was present by 1883 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0510240).

State 2 (restored)

Impression: K0510227
The scratch across the blouse has been removed and the lines of the blouse restored.
Impression: K0510207
Some impressions were more fully inked, making the fading drypoint print more strongly but also making the plate corrosion more conspicuous, as in the impression reproduced above.

State 2 (cancelled)

Impression: K0510z13
Cancelled with four horizontal lines and two diagonal lines running from corner to corner.