UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Liverdun

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.212)
Number: 13
Date: 1858
Medium: etching
Size: 109 x 156 mm
Signed: 'Whistler' at upper right (1-final); 'J. Whistler' at lower left (3)
Inscribed: 'Imp. Delatre. Rue St. Jacques. 171.' at lower right (3)
Set/Publication: 'French Set', 1858
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 48
Catalogues: K.16; M.16; T.2; W.4
Impressions taken from this plate  (48)

TECHNIQUE

An etching, with added texture provided by foul biting.

PRINTING

Over fifty impressions of Liverdun are recorded, most being of the third, published, state. The first state was printed in black ink on buff wove card, and is badly folded and torn - it seems to have been used for wrapping up a copper plate (). An impression of the second state was printed in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper with a partial watermark of a shield and crown with a cross on top ().
A few later impressions are in brown ink, for instance on cream 'modern' (post-1800) laid (); light weight ivory laid (, ); and on ivory Japanese paper ().
However, the third state was mostly printed in black ink on off-white China paper laid down on white or off-white wove plate paper (chine collé) (, , , , ), and on tan chine appliqué on off-white wove paper (, ). Other papers included fibrous wove papers in buff () and grey (); tan laid paper () and a pale grey laid paper, possibly with a Strasbourg Lily watermark () and thick dark cream wove card ().