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The Band, Luxembourg Gardens

Impression: Whistler Etchings Project
Whistler Etchings Project
(-)
Number: 466
Date: 1893/1894
Medium: etching
Size: 181 x 152 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 1
Catalogues: K.-; M.-; T.-; W.-
Impressions taken from this plate  (1)
Etching: PE19_01
Recto, above; verso, below:
Etching: PE19_02
On the verso, the copper plate bears the oval stamp of 'C. SERVANT / PLANEUR / 45, B DES GDS AUGUSTINS'. Servant, in the Boulevard des Grands Augustines, provided ten of Whistler's late copper plates, including Boulevard Poissonière, Paris 483, Polichinelle, Jardin du Luxembourg 467, Antony's Print Shop, Rue de Seine 477, Café Corazza, Paris 484 and Mme Pelletier, Blanchisserie, Paris 481, all of which were printed in very small editions; and The Band, Luxembourg Gardens, Under the Statue, Luxembourg Gardens 464, Confections pour Dames 475, Sleeping Child, Ajaccio 488 and Flaming Forge 490, which were either not printed at all in Whistler's life-time, or no impressions survive.
The Luxembourg copper plates, although derived from the same maker, are of various sizes. There are three groups. Under the Statue, Luxembourg Gardens (162 x 124mm) is close in size to Polichinelle, Luxembourg Gardens (122 x 161mm). This etching, The Band, Luxembourg Gardens (181 x 152mm) is close to another Paris subject, Blanchisserie (182 x 151mm). Picture-Shop, Rue de Seine (152 x 192mm) is similar to Sleeping Child, Ajaccio (153 x 190mm) and Flaming Forge (192 x 154). This leaves three copper plates of unique sizes, probably all Paris subjects, Café Corazza, Palais Royal (133 x 221mm), French houses (225 x 130mm), and finally Boulevard Poissonière (159 x 232mm).
The Paris copper plates may have remained in Whistler's Paris studio after he left. Eventually, they were sorted, cleaned and stored by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), under strict instructions from the artist. 'In Paris you have some, have you not, in your closets? - and at the atelier I have scarcely ventured to look on the shelves for a long time back! - Make some kind of a note of them - and lock them up - ' he ordered in 1901. 7

7: Whistler to R. B. Philip, 27 January [1901] , GUW #04787.

The copper plate of Under the Statue, Luxembourg Gardens remained in Whistler's possession until his death, and was bequeathed to Miss Birnie Philip, who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line from upper left to the bottom centre of the plate.