UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Mrs J. Birnie Philip

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(49932)
Number: 479
Date: 1896/1901
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 102 x 68 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 3
Catalogues: K.-; M.-; T.-; W.-
Impressions taken from this plate  (3)
Etching: PE09_01
The copper plate bears the stamp of 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' This was Whistler's main supplier and the size was one he favoured from about 1888 until 1901. The same stamp appears on several copper plates that are close in size, including Woman sleeping in a chair 401, Market Women: Turkeys 424 and Marchande de Vin, Ajaccio 485.
The copper plate was in Whistler's studio at his death and was bequeathed to the sitter's daughter, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). She had several proofs printed by Nathaniel Sparks (1880-1956) in 1931. 5 It was then cancelled with one diagonal line from upper left to lower right. Miss Philip gave the plate to the University of Glasgow in 1935.

5: Martin Hopkinson, 'Nathaniel Sparks's Printing of Whistler's Etchings', Print Quarterly, 1999, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 340-341, 349.