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The Embroidered Curtain

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46999)
Number: 451
Date: 1889
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 239 x 161 mm
Signed: butterfly at upper left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 10
Known impressions: 27
Catalogues: K.410; M.411
Impressions taken from this plate  (27)

STATE

10 states are known before cancellation.

State 1

Impression: K4100102
Signed with a butterfly on a roundel on the brick wall at upper left.
The composition is basically complete.

State 2

Impression: K4100203
Heavier shading is added within all the open doorways; very fine left to right diagonal shading (\\\) covers the dress of the girl at left in the second doorway from the left; new horizontal and slight left-right diagonal shading is added on the stoop below the women in the third doorway from the left; diagonal shading is added between the legs of the man standing in the rightmost open doorway; the heads of the two children at right are more clearly indicated; fine, close left to right diagonal drypoint shading is added on the side of the bodice of the child at far right; shading is added among the pilings and to the reflections in the foreground, most notably a dark rectangle at left, indicating the reflection of the third open doorway.

State 3

Impression: K4100302
There is more shading on the frock of the woman at right in the third doorway from the left; the shading among the pilings and on the water is changed, and there are now strong diagonals below the pilings at centre and at the lower right corner in the foreground; the reflections of the open doorways and building façades are reduced and less distinct.
Kennedy placed the states in a different order; he thought that our state 3 was later than our state 4. 14

14: Kennedy 1910, cat. no. 410 state 3/7.

State 4

Impression: K4100z01
The facial features on the woman at right in the third doorway from the left are more distinct; the shading among the pilings and the reflections is changed again, and the reflections of the open doorways and building façades are mostly reduced to small patches of shading.
Kennedy reversed the order of this state and the previous one, which are listed as the third and second states in his catalogue. 15

15: Ibid., cat. no. 410 state 2/7.

State 5

Impression: K4100402
Small patches of heavy shading are added on either side of the woman carrying a child, between the two lower open doorways; shading is added to the window panes above the stooping figure in the lower open doorway at right; fine right to left diagonal shading (///) now crosses the earlier diagonal shading between the legs of the man standing in the rightmost open doorway; there is new etched work on the closed door at far right and the stairs beneath it, including the faint outlines of a child wearing dark stockings, and foul biting appears on the stairs; a few patches of shading are added to the brickwork between the closed door and the edge of the image; the head and left shoulder of the rightmost child are re-etched; the shadows and reflections in the foreground are changed again, with darker shading added among the pilings, and to the reflections immediately in front of them, and curved areas suggesting the outlines of the figures at centre and right are added to the reflections.

State 6

Impression: K4100502
The brickwork between the window and closed door at far right and the edge of the image is now heavily etched; shading in all directions is added among the pilings and to the reflections, obscuring the outlines of the reflected figures.

State 7

Impression: K4100506
Most of the shading on the pilings and reflections is removed, and the area in the foreground is burnished.

State 8

Impression: K4100602
Shading in the open doorways and between the legs of the man standing in the rightmost open doorway is reinforced and darkened; short right to left diagonal lines (///) now cross the small patch of horizontal shading to the left of the faint outlines of a child on the stairs below the closed door at right, and the child's stockings are no longer dark; the areas among the pilings are now lightly shaded; reflections of the two centre open doorways as well as the figures at centre and right are added to the water.

State 9

Impression: K4100604
Shading on the lower half of the third window from the left at the top is removed or worn away; the hair of the rightmost standing child is removed, along with much of the foul biting above and to the right of it.

State 10

Impression: K4100504
New patches of shading are added to the lower half of the third window from the left at the top; a rectangle of heavy shading now appears above the heads in the second window from the right at the top; there is heavier shading among the pilings and on the reflections in the foreground, partially obscuring the reflections of the figures.
During the course of printing this state, lines in the patches of heavy shading in the foreground and on the buildings broke down and began to print as flat areas of tone. This varies considerably among the impressions located, with some exhibiting fresh burry lines (Graphic with a link to impression #K4100705), and some showing the beginnings of wear (Graphic with a link to impression #K4100703), while others display more distinct flat areas in the foreground and softer lines on the façades of the buildings (Graphic with a link to impression #K4100z03), as in the impression reproduced below:
Impression: K4100z03
Kennedy thought the plate might have been 'scraped, or rubbed down with charcoal.' 16 However, given the variation in wear among impressions of this state, it is much more likely that flattening of the lines was the result of wear from printing.

16: Ibid., cat. no. 410, state 7/7.

State 10 (cancelled)

The plate is lightly cancelled with one diagonal line.
No impression from the cancelled plate has been located. It is known only from the cancelled plate.