UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Balcony, Amsterdam

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(2007.116)
Number: 446
Date: 1889
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 272 x 169 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 27
Catalogues: K.405; M.404; W.262
Impressions taken from this plate  (27)
The copper plate has no maker's mark, and is quite close in size to The Dance House: Nocturne [455], which also has no maker's stamp. It is possible both were bought in Amsterdam.
The plate was in Whistler's studio at his death and was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). At her request it was printed in a small edition by Nathaniel Sparks (1880-1956) in 1931, when the plate was, according to Sparks 'in practically perfect condition'. 7 It was then cancelled, and given by Miss Philip to the University of Glasgow in 1935.

7: Martin Hopkinson, 'Nathaniel Sparks's Printing of Whistler's Etchings', Print Quarterly, 1999, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 340, 342, 349.