UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Swinburne

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1903.256)
Number: 108
Date: 1873/1877
Medium: drypoint
Size: 280 x 190 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 18
Catalogues: K.136; M.134; W.110
Impressions taken from this plate  (18)

TECHNIQUE

This was drawn entirely in drypoint, with large slightly irregular swathes of slightly curving diagonal shading on the figure and background; repeated outlines for the figure, changing its size and shape; and much shorter strokes of light shading on the face.

PRINTING

There are unique impressions of the first (Graphic with a link to impression #K1360102) and second (Graphic with a link to impression #K1360201) states. The first is printed in dark brown ink on ivory 'antique' (pre-1800) laid paper with a 'IV' countermark, removed from a book, with old Greek and Latin inscriptions in brown ink on the verso. The second is in black ink (as are the cancelled impressions) and is on ivory laid paper with a 'DEDB' and beehive watermark.
There were probably 20 to 24 impressions from the cancelled plate. It was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879. Papers included 'modern' (post-1800) cream laid paper with a Strasbourg Lily /WGL watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1360302), ivory laid 'Van Gelder' (Graphic with a link to impression #K1360310), and cream wove paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1360307).