The Palaces |  Art Institute of Chicago (1942.576) | |
| Number: | 223 | |
| Date: | 1879/1880 | |
| Medium: | etching, drypoint and open bite | |
| Size: | 252 x 358 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper left (4-5); removed (6) | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'First Venice Set', 1880 | |
| No. of States: | 6 | |
| Known impressions: | 56 | |
| Catalogues: | K.187; M.184; W.153 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (56) | ||
The copper plate has no maker's mark, and is a different size from any other plate. It was made for Whistler in Venice. It is the largest of Whistler's copper plates, specially bought for this, his only view of palaces on the Grand Canal. 7
7: Getscher 1970.
It was published in Venice, a Series of Twelve Etchings (the 'First Venice Set') by the Fine Art Society, London, in 1880. It was cancelled with a butterfly with a long undulating tail ending in a 'sting', probably in 1892.
The cancelled copper plate is now in the Mellon Center for Studies in British Art, Yale. 8
8: 257 x 364mm, L.2005-120.02.