The Hoop (Gray's Inn) |  Boston Public Library (W.292) | |
| Number: | 287 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 177 x 128 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 1 | |
| Catalogues: | K.301; M.296 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (1) | ||
The copper plate does not have a maker's stamp but is the same size as Exeter Street [274]
and Bébés, Jardin du Luxembourg [463], both dating from 1887. It is very close in size to a lot of plates from the same year including London subjects
such as T. A. Nash's Greengrocer's Shop [298] and Cutler Street, Houndsditch [361], and Naval Review etchings including
The Visitors' Boat [303],
and
Bunting [304], as well as others done in France in 1888, such as
Little Market Place, Tours [389].
The plate was listed in Whistler's studio as 'The Baby & the Ball (Grays Inn) 7 x 5' and/or 'Grays Inn The Hoop 7 x 5'. The size, 7 x 5", is 127 x 178mm: it is possible that Whistler got confused and listed the etching twice under different names. 11 Alternatively, it is possible that one of these titles refers to another, unidentified, etching.
11: Whistler, list, [August 1887/1888], GUW #13233.
The copper plate was in Whistler's estate and was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line across the lower left corner.