Whistler Etchings

Gray's Inn Set

Date

Whistler drew a series of etchings in the Gray's Inn area of London in 1887. Most show people sitting and playing in the gardens, and the trees in full leaf, suggesting summer.

The set was not published, but was printed and sold by Whistler direct to dealers and patrons. The first sales of the Gray's Inn etchings by Whistler were to the London print dealer Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) on 17 November and 21 December 1887. He bought impressions of The Steps, Gray's Inn [282], The Hoop (Gray's Inn) [287] , The Long Seats, Gray's Inn [283], The Baby, Gray's Inn [288] and The Little Nurse, Grays Inn [286]. 1

1: GUW #13016, #13017.

A list of the group compiled a few years later by Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896) gives the following details:'Greys Inn, The little nurse 1887.'
Greys. Inn - The Hoop 1887'
Greys. Inn - The Baby and the Ball 1887'
Greys. Inn - The Garden Seat.'
1887 Greys Inn - The Baby -'
1887 Greys Inn - The Young Tree.'
1887 Greys Inn - Greys Inn Place. 1887'
Greys. Inn - The Long Seats. 1887'
Greys. Inn - The Steps 1887'
Greys. Inn - The Doorway, 1887'
Greys. Inn. Under the Trees, 1887' 2

2: [1890/1892], GUW #12715.

However, this includes subjects that have not been identified: what may be considered the definitive group consists of The Long Seats, Gray's Inn [283], The Young Tree [285], The Baby, Gray's Inn [288], Gray's Inn Place [281], Doorway, Gray's Inn [289], The Hoop (Gray's Inn) [287], The Little Nurse, Grays Inn [286] and The Steps, Gray's Inn [282].

The Long Seats, Gray's Inn [283]

The Young Tree [285]

The Baby, Gray's Inn [288]

Gray's Inn Place [281]

Doorway, Gray's Inn [289]

The Hoop (Gray's Inn) [287]

The Little Nurse, Grays Inn [286]

The Steps, Gray's Inn [282]

The Set: Copper Plates

In a list of copper plates in the studio made in late 1887 or 1888 Whistler included eleven possible Gray's Inn subjects, ticking some of the names as they were checked:

'The Long Seats 7 x [illegible] 3/4 ...
The Young Tree 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 ...
The Little Picnic· [tick] 4 x 2 5/8 ...
The Baby Grays Inn [tick] 4 x 2 5/8 ...
Grays Inn [tick] 7 x 5 ...
Doorway Grays Inn · [tick] 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 ...
Grays Inn The Hoop [tick] 7 x 5 ...
The Baby & the Ball (Grays Inn) [tick] 7 x 5 ...
The little nurse [tick]...
Under the Trees [tick] ...
The Garden Steps' 3

3: [August 1887/1888], GUW #13233.

This list includes The Long Seats, Gray's Inn [283], The Young Tree [285], The Baby, Gray's Inn [288], Gray's Inn Place [281], Doorway, Gray's Inn [289], The Hoop (Gray's Inn) [287], The Little Nurse, Grays Inn [286] and The Steps, Gray's Inn [282] plus three unidentified aubjects, 'The Little Picnic', 'The Baby & the Ball', and 'Under the Trees'.

Likewise, eleven subjects were recorded in the list of Whistler's etchings by Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896) a few years later, mentioned above. There is an overlap between these two lists, confirming the main etchings in the series. There are also three unidentified etchings on each list. 'The Baby and the Ball' and 'Under the Trees' are on both lists but 'The Little Picnic' is only on the first list and 'The Garden Seat'only on the second. Thus it is not clear if there were eleven or twelve Grey's Inn subjects, or indeed if there were only eight and these three were already in the lists under other names.

Site

Gray's Inn was a sheltered green oasis in the city of London, where members of the legal profession had rooms. 4

Doorway, Gray's Inn, reproduced below, is typical of Whistler's Gray's Inn etchings, including scattered selected details of architecture, gardens, and women with children sitting or playing.

4: Francis Watt, 'Gray's Inn', The Art Journal, 1888, pp.15-19 and 75-78.

Doorway, Gray's Inn

Lochnan comments:

'Whistler made charming plein-air studies of children in Gray's Inn Place which recall En plein soleil of 1858. In them Whistler showed children and their parents enjoying fresh air and sun in this charming precinct of the Inns of Court, perhaps on a quiet summer Sunday. The distribution of the children on the lawn, represented as a neutral ground in Children: Gray's Inn ... provided the artist with the elements for his compositional arrangements.' 5

5: Lochnan, Katharine A., The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1984, p. 226.

Children: Gray's Inn

EXHIBITION

Gray's Inn etchings were first exhibited with Les XX in Brussels and at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1888. 6 An article (possibly suggested by the artist) commented that Durand-Ruel's show represented:

6: [Exhibition], Société des XX (Vingts), Brussels, 1888 (cat. nos. 5, 8); Exposition, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1888.

'Whistler as hero, and Caillebotte, Renoir, and other minor lights as repoussoirs. Whistler exhibits ... a selection of etchings of the Naval Review, of shops in London, of children in Gray's Inn Gardens, and of street scenes in Brussels and Bruges - very wonderful works and most exquisite visions of things, observed with extraordinary analytical sureness, and rendered by a hand for which drawing has no secrets. ' 7

7: Theoc, 'Gossip from Paris,' World, 30 May 1888, p. 22; see Whistler to M. C. Salaman, [14 June 1888], GUW #10947.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

REFERENCES

Kennedy, Edward G., Catalogue of Etchings by J. McN. Whistler, Compiled by an Amateur. Supplementary to that Compiled by F. Wedmore, New York, 1902 (cat. nos. 283-286, 307).
Kennedy, Edward G., The Etched Work of Whistler, New York, 1910 (cat. nos. 295-302).
Lochnan, Katharine A., The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1984, pp. 226-7.
Mansfield, Howard, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-Points of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Chicago, 1909 (cat. nos. 290-297).

REVIEWS 1887-1905

Theoc, 'Gossip from Paris,' World, 30 May 1888, p. 22.

EXHIBITIONS 1855- 1905

Exposition, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1888.
[Exhibition], Société des XX (Vingts), Brussels, 1888 (cat. nos. 5, 8).
Exhibition of Etchings, Drypoints. and Lithographs by Whistler, H. Wunderlich and Co., New York, 1898 (cat. nos. 199, 200, 202, 283).
An Exhibition of Etchings and Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, The Caxton Club, 1900 (cat. nos. 241 a,b; 242, 245 a,b; 250, 258).
A Collection of Etchings and Dry Points by Whistler recently acquired, H. Wunderlich and Co., New York, 1903 (cat. nos. 208, 209, 235).
Exhibition of Etchings by James McNeill Whistler, Obach and Co., London, 1903 (cat. nos. 230, 235).
Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Copley Hall, Boston, February 1904 (cat. nos. 201).
Etchings and Dry-Points by James McNeill Whistler, The Grolier Club, New York, 1904 (cat. nos. 304, 307-311).
Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. nos. 283-286, 307).

UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW