Hôtel de Ville, Loches |  Freer Gallery of Art (1889.14) | |
| Number: | 412 | |
| Date: | 1888 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 270 x 165 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 2 | |
| Known impressions: | 5 | |
| Catalogues: | K.384; M.384 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (5) | ||
TECHNIQUE
This plate was executed in etching, augmented with drypoint shading in the second state. The scene is vignetted, with empty space at right and at the bottom. There is a huge amount of detail in the rest of the composition, with both the figures and architecture drawn with a variety of short, broken lines, including irregular patches of shading to indicate shadows and texture. The buildings are drawn with fussy - but selective - detail. Most of the figures were drawn with short, expressive lines (curves, hooks, angular lines) without shading.
PRINTING
The '1st. Proof' of Hotel de Ville, Loches was printed in black ink on off-white laid paper with 'GR' countermark (
). A second state sold by Whistler in March 1889 is in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper with a 'PRO PATRIA' watermark (). Other impressions of the second state were in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper (i.e. , ) and black on buff 'antique' (pre-1800) laid paper with an 'HK' countermark (). The plate was usually printed with a little pale tone. All impressions are trimmed to the platemark and signed on a tab with Whistler's butterfly and 'imp.' to show that he printed them.
). A second state sold by Whistler in March 1889 is in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper with a 'PRO PATRIA' watermark (). Other impressions of the second state were in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper (i.e. , ) and black on buff 'antique' (pre-1800) laid paper with an 'HK' countermark (). The plate was usually printed with a little pale tone. All impressions are trimmed to the platemark and signed on a tab with Whistler's butterfly and 'imp.' to show that he printed them.