Wheelwright |  Art Institute of Chicago (1924.654) | |
| Number: | 240 | |
| Date: | 1880 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 127 x 177 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower left, faint butterfly upper left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Second Venice Set', 1886 | |
| No. of States: | 9 | |
| Known impressions: | 29 | |
| Catalogues: | K.233; M.230; W.162 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (29) | ||
STATE
Nine states are known before cancellation.
State 1
Signed with a butterfly at lower left and with another indistinct butterfly at the left end of the beam at upper left.
The composition is complete; there is light shading on the peaked ceiling above the beams.
State 2
Heavy shading is added to the peaked ceiling above the beams, to the covered wagon in the background and to the area surrounding it.
State 3
New shading is added to the cover of the wagon in the background, to the front of the wagon just behind the bending man, and to the space at the wagon's left; a few long lines now shade the top of the diagonal support behind the man holding a wheel at right.
State 4
Fine vertical, horizontal and diagonal shading is added to a number of formerly unshaded areas at the centre and right side of the image, notably to left of the man holding the upright wheel at right and around his head and torso, above the man bending over a wheel on the ground, and on and around the man at far right.
State 5
New fine shading is added above and to right of the man holding the upright wheel, above the man bending over the wheel in the foreground, and around the two men at the forge at the extreme right; small patches of fine diagonals are added above the men at the forge.
There is some light foxing on the right side of the impression illustrated, which also has a curving horizontal printer's crease near the lower edge.
State 6
Diagonal shading is added above and to left of the head of the man in front of the forge; new shading, including a dark rectangular patch, is added around the two poles (or wagon hitch) at the centre of the image; some fine shading is removed above and to the left of both the man holding the wheel and the man behind the forge; shading is added to the waistcoat of the man holding the upright wheel; light diagonal shading crosses the horizontal shading behind the legs of the man holding the wheel; the indistinct butterfly signature at the left end of the front beam is barely visible.
State 7
Fine shading is removed above the back of the man bending over a wheel in the foreground and to left of the head of the man standing in front of the forge; the indistinct butterfly signature on the front beam has been removed or worn away.
Published in this and later states by Messrs Dowdeswell and Thibaudeau with the Twenty-six Etchings (the 'Second Venice Set') in 1886.
State 8
The shading on and around the covered wagon in the background is rebitten and strengthened, creating a more rounded wagon cover at left and a light, curving v-shape to right of the wagon; granular foul biting appears at the centre of the image, along with a group of spots from acid droplets at upper right.
State 9
Shading on the peaked ceiling above the front beam at right is reinforced with strong vertical lines.
State 9 (cancelled)
Cancelled with irregular crossed diagonal lines.