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Gray's Inn Place

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1906.121)
Number: 281
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 127 x 177 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 6
Catalogues: K.297; M.292
Impressions taken from this plate  (6)

KEYWORD

children, courtyard, Inns of Court, , people, building.

TITLE

One title predominates, as follows:


GREYS INN PLACE' (1887, Whistler). 2
'Grays Inn Place ' (1889, Whistler). 3
'Greys Inn - Greys Inn Place ' (1890/1892, Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896)). 4
''Gray's Inn Place' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 5

Thus, 'Gray's Inn Place' is the preferred title, based on Whistler's title with corrected punctuation and spelling.

2: Etched on the copper plate.

3: List, 18 July 1889, GUW #13235.

4: List, [1890/1892], GUW #12715.

5: Kennedy 1902 (cat. no. 285).

DESCRIPTION

A courtyard, with, in the foreground at the right, a boy and a girl with a child in her arms. The court has buildings on either side, and right across the area at the back, where a short passage leads through to another courtyard on the right. Two storeys of the house at the back of the court are visible, and two windows with slightly arched tops, on each floor at left, and another window over the passageway, below which is the sign 'GRAY'S INN PLACE'. Through the passageway, two figures are seen in front of the buildings at the far side of the second courtyard.

SITE

Gray's Inn, London, where the quiet courtyards held the offices and apartments of members of the legal profession. This area, leading into Gray's Inn Fields, has been totally rebuilt.