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The Silk Dress

Impression: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
(1949.5.539)
Number: 151
Date: 1875
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 209 x 134 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 18
Catalogues: K.107; M.115
Impressions taken from this plate  (18)

TECHNIQUE

The plate was executed in etching and drypoint. The subject was drawn with repeated outlines - even her chin has several outlines - and the front of her skirt is expressed with five and more long slightly curved strokes of the needle. The folds of the train are drawn with two to five repeated lines, with a more dynamic, jagged quality. The shading on her hat and hair is softened by burr in the early impressions (i.e. Graphic with a link to impression #K1070102).

PRINTING

Only two impressions of The Silk Dress are known before cancellation. One of the first state was printed in black ink on cream 'modern' (post-1800) laid paper with a De Erven De Blauw watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1070102) and one of the second state on ivory laid paper removed from a book, with an old ink inscription on the verso (Graphic with a link to impression #K1070202).
Impressions from the cancelled plate (there may have been an edition of twenty or more) were printed in black ink, some on cream 'modern' laid Van Gelder watermarked paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1070302, Graphic with a link to impression #K1070309), for publication by the Fine Art Society in 1879.