UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

building, chateau, façade, sculpture, woman.

Whistler's original title is not known, but a descriptive title was given to the copper plate:

Chateau pres Paimpol (1893/1894, possibly Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896)). 4

The title 'Chateau près Paimpol' may have been provided by Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896) or Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), based on information from Whistler or their own knowledge.

The top right half of the plate is taken up with the façade of a house with a high, steep, roof, drawn parallel to the plate edges. The building has a tall central buttress extending from the ground to near the top of the roof, and windows to left and right that jut out of the roof, with carved stone sculptures above them, possibly armorial designs. The sculpture on the left has foliate scrolls supporting a shell or fleur-de-lys.

In front of the house is a woman, and in the middle-foreground, at left, an animal, the size of a dog or pig.

Paimpol is in Brittany, France, between Rennes and Brest. Paimpol was a small town of over 2000 inhabitants, heavily dependent on fishing. Whistler made several lithographs there including The Clock-Makers, Paimpol c065 and Red House, Paimpol c066 and told Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) that he was 'delighted with the proofs ... They are most delicate and beautifully printed -.' 5

However, the site has not been identified with certainty. Whistler also etched several chateaux in the Loire, including Château de Bridoré 409, Château Touraine 410, Château de Verneuil, Touraine 408 and Château d'Amboise 431.