UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Recto, above; verso, below:

The copper plate for Hôtel de la Croix Blanche bears the maker's oval stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' It is close in size to several other plates used in 1887 and 1888 including T. A. Nash's Greengrocer's Shop [298], After the Sale, Clothes Exchange, Houndsditch [357], Gray's Inn Place [281], The Wine Shop, Amboise [430] and The Clock Tower - Amboise [429].

The plate for Hôtel de la Croix Blanche was in Whistler's studio at his death and was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It was cancelled posthumously by a diagonal line across the lower left corner.

A plate was listed during stock-taking in Whistler's studio as 'Hotel Kitchen / 7 x 5'. 8 7 x 5" is 178 x 127mm. Hôtel de la Croix Blanche is a vertical plate of similar size (176 x 125mm) to the listed etching, showing poultry in the courtyard of a hotel, which could by a slight leap of the imagination be a scene outside a kitchen! It is possible that the title was recorded incorrectly (could 'Hotel Chickens' have been written as 'Hotel Kitchen'?). It is also possible that the birds in the courtyard were gathered round the kitchen door.