The 'Renaissance Set'
The series of etchings made during the honeymoon of Beatrice and James McNeill Whistler, in September and October 1888, was made in Touraine, along the Loire valley. It focussed in particular on Loches, Tours, Amboise and Bourges. It was never published by a print dealer, and plates were printed in small numbers.
Whistler referred to the series in 1889 as 'the last Renaissance lot'. 1 Renaissance Window [417] may have suggested the name of the 'Renaissance' set to the artist.
1: Whistler to M. B. Huish, 3 September 1889, GUW #08803.
The content of the 'Renaissance Set'.
Given the title of the set, it is assumed that it included images of Renaissance and other buildings of particular importance. Thus the following etchings of architectural subjects could be included: The Market Place, Tours [388], Courtyard, Rue P. L. Courier, Tours [391], The Hôtel de la Croix Blanche [395], Rue des Bons Enfants, Tours [392], The Hangman's House, Tours [393], Hôtel Lallement, Bourges [396], Windows opposite Hotel, Bourges [397], Windows, Bourges [398], Court of the Monastery of St. Augustine, Bourges [403], Notre-Dame, Bourges [402], Château de Verneuil, Touraine [408], Chancellerie, Loches [411], Hôtel de Ville, Loches [412], Mairie, Loches [413], The Door of the Chapel, Montrésor [422], Under the Cathedral, Blois [428], The Clock Tower - Amboise [429], and Château d'Amboise [431]. However, most of these were printed in tiny print-runs of one to four impressions. The slightly larger print runs suggest that the real 'Renaissance Set' was as follows:
THE HONEYMOON:
On their honeymoon, James taught Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896) to etch. One etching, reproduced below, was done by the two newly-weds, and signed with a composite signature (a trefoil and butterfly):
LISTS OF ETCHINGS
The complete list of etchings known to have been done on Whistler's honeymoon, and from which impressions were printed includes: Railway-Station, Voves [387], The Market Place, Tours [388], Little Market Place, Tours [389], Place Daumont, Tours [390], Courtyard, Rue P. L. Courier, Tours [391], Rue des Bons Enfants, Tours [392], The Hôtel de la Croix Blanche [395], The Hangman's House, Tours [393], Hôtel Lallement, Bourges [396], Windows opposite Hotel, Bourges [397], Windows, Bourges [398], Court of the Monastery of St. Augustine, Bourges [403], Notre-Dame, Bourges [402], Château de Verneuil, Touraine [408], Château de Bridoré [409], Château Touraine [410], Chancellerie, Loches [411], Hôtel de Ville, Loches [412], Mairie, Loches [413], Tour Saint Antoine, Loches [414], Hôtel de la Promenade, Loches [415], Doorway, Stables - Loches [416], Renaissance Window [417], Theatre, Loches [418], From Agnes Sorel's Walk, Loches [419], Gateway, Chartreuse, near Loches [421], The Door of the Chapel, Montrésor [422],
Market Women, Loches [423],
Market Women: Turkeys [424],
Booth, Market Place, Loches [425],
Under the Cathedral, Blois [428],
The Clock Tower - Amboise [429],
The Wine Shop, Amboise [430],
Château d'Amboise [431],
Children, Amboise [432].
Finally there are a number of copper plates etched by Whistler - and cancelled after his death - which may date from the honeymoon but from which no impression is known, including
A French Street [405],
Beatrice Whistler painting from a window, Bourges [399],
The Spanish Balcony: Pigeons [407] and
Man Fishing [404]. These have been digitally reconstructed to show what prints would have looked like - they include portraits and street scenes, as in the examples reproduced below. Indeed, impressions of these etchings may still exist, in people's attics!
A list made on his return records many of the works etched on the honeymoon. 2 Many of the etchings, identified and non-identified, are crossed out in the list. This suggests that Whistler or his wife were checking stocks and copper plates in the studio. The list intersperses known and unidentified works.
2: Whistler, [August 1887/1888], GUW#13233.
- From Bourges, the lists names 'Little Hotel Alemant - Bourges' and 'The Windows opposite, Bourges', which are Hôtel Lallement, Bourges [396] and Windows opposite Hotel, Bourges [397].
- Loches etchings include 'Gateway - Chartreux, Loches', 'Market Women Loches' and 'Tower St Antoine - Loches', which are Gateway, Chartreuse, near Loches [421], Market Women: Turkeys [424], Tour Saint Antoine, Loches [414]; plus 'Doorway Stables - Loches', which may possibly be Children, Amboise [432]; and Booth, Market Place, Loches [425].
- The Tours etchings in this list, namely 'Little Market place Tours', 'Rue P L Courier, Tours' and 'The Market Place Tours' are Little Market Place, Tours [389], Courtyard, Rue P. L. Courier, Tours [391], The Market Place, Tours [388]. 'House of Tristan' is The Hangman's House, Tours [393]. 'The Hotel' may possibly be The Hôtel de la Croix Blanche [395]; and there is one unidentified etching, 'The Sabot Makers - Tours'.
- From Amboise, 'The Wine Shop. Amboise' is The Wine Shop, Amboise [430]. 'Babies Amboise' is probably Children, Amboise [432]. There is also one unidentified etching, and 'Hole in the Hill Amboise'.
The unidentified etchings (that is, works that were in the end not printed and sold) may well have been printed, and then rejected and destroyed, while the copper plates were cancelled, so that no impressions from them are known.
Among the copper plates remaining in Whistler's possession and now in the Hunterian Art Gallery are some that appear to be possible candidates for subjects named on these lists. The curious thing is that they do not appear inferior, damaged or less finished than the known and printed works.
Furthermore the selection of etchings that were printed and have survived includes small, minimalistic works such as Windows, Bourges [398]. Why it should have been saved when larger and more apparently impressive, detailed and further developed etchings were abandoned, is a mystery. One possibility is that certain etchings had a particular personal appeal that others lacked, for Whistler was obviously very happy on his extended working honeymoon.
By the end of October 1888, anticipating the publication of this set, Whistler was writing his own press-release from Tours:
'Mr Whistler, we hear, has in his journeyings in sunny France, not been idle - He brings back with him some forty new etchings of the finest quality. Those who have seen them, in Paris, say that the elegancies of French Renaissance have never been so exquisitely rendered as in their fairy like plates, and the world of connoisseurs and collectors look[s] forward to the printing of these latest proofs of the Master's delicacy, with anxious expectation -' 3
'Mr Whistler, we hear, has in his journeyings in sunny France, not been idle - He brings back with him some forty new etchings of the finest quality. Those who have seen them, in Paris, say that the elegancies of French Renaissance have never been so exquisitely rendered as in their fairy like plates, and the world of connoisseurs and collectors look[s] forward to the printing of these latest proofs of the Master's delicacy, with anxious expectation -' 3
3: Whistler to C. Hanson, [25 October 1888?], GUW #08842.
In December 1888 Sheridan Ford announced that Whistler was about to visit America, where his recent paintings and etchings of 'the cathedral towns of France' would be exhibited by H. Wunderlich & Co. 4 However, the trip was never made and the Wunderlich show did not include the 'Renaissance' etchings.
4: Ford, Sheridan, 'A Famous American on his way to the United States,' Citizen, Brooklyn, New York, 2 December 1888 (GUL PC10/54).
It is possible that it was the success of his subsequent set of etchings, the 'Amsterdam' set, that caused him to stop work on the 'Renaissance' set. A letter written by Whistler from Amsterdam on 3 September 1889 states:
'Meanwhile I may say that what I have already begun is of far finer quality than all that has gone before - combining a minuteness of detail, always referred to with sadness by the critics who point hark back to the Thames etchings, (forgetting that they wrote foolishly about those also when they first appeared!) with greater freedom and more beauty of execution than even the Venice set or the last Renaissance lot can pretend to -' 5
5: Whistler to M.B. Huish, 3 September 1889, GUW #08803.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
EXHIBITIONS
- Exposition Générale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1890.
- World's Columbian Exposition, Department of Fine Arts, Chicago, 1893.
- Exhibition of Etchings, Drypoints. and Lithographs by Whistler, H. Wunderlich and Co., New York, 1898.
- An Exhibition of Etchings and Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, The Caxton Club, 1900.
- 71st Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1902.
- A Collection of Etchings and Dry Points by Whistler recently acquired, H. Wunderlich and Co., New York, 1903.
- Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Copley Hall, Boston, February 1904.
- Etchings and Dry-Points by James McNeill Whistler, The Grolier Club, New York, 1904.
- 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.
- Exhibition of Etchings and Drypoints by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1910.
- Etchings Lithographs Original Drawings and Autograph Letters by James McNeill Whistler 1834-1903 Lent by Lessing J. Rosenwald, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1931.
REVIEWS
- Anon., Pall Mall Gazette, 30 October 1888 (GUL PC10/32).
- Anon., Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 3 November 1888 (GUL PC10/32).
- Ford, Sheridan, 'A Famous American on his way to the United States,' Citizen, Brooklyn, New York, 2 December 1888 (GUL PC10/54).
REFERENCES
- Kennedy, Edward G., The Etched Work of Whistler, New York, 1910 (cat. nos. 369-401).
- Lochnan, Katharine A., The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1984, chap. 4.
- Mansfield, Howard, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-Points of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Chicago, 1909 (cat. nos. 368-399).
- Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890.