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Arthur Haden

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1892.1)
Number: 66
Date: 1859
Medium: drypoint
Size: 229 x 154 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.' (2-final) at lower left
Inscribed: '1869' at lower left (2-3); changed to '1859' (4)
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 31
Catalogues: K.61; M.61; T.59; W.47
Impressions taken from this plate  (31)

STATE

Four states are known before cancellation.

State 1

Etching: K0610102
There is no signature or inscription.
The upper parts of a figure and chair are sketchily delineated; remnants of an upside-down head are visible at lower centre, from an earlier use of the copper plate.

State 2

Etching: K0610204
Signed 'Whistler. 1859.' at lower left.
The figure, sitting sideways on a round backed wooden chair, and the curtain behind him, are completed; the boy wears a velvet jacket, striped trousers, silk stockings and 'pumps'; a hat lies on the floor at lower right; stray lines of hair at upper left have been covered by the shading of the curtain and several lines indicating curls are added at left.
The first impressions of this state show the new curls at left quite clearly, but they are less distinct on later impressions, as the drypoint burr had worn.

State 3

Etching: K0610301
Short horizontal lines indicate a shadow on the floor to right of the boy's ankle; patches of fine shading are added to the curtain; lines are added on the hair, particularly at the top and left.

State 4

Etching: K0610304
Fine shading is added to the curtain behind the figure, creating a more fully developed cast shadow; a patch of left-to-right diagonal shading (\\\) crosses the rung of the chair at lower left.

State 4 (cancelled)

Etching: K0610401
Cancelled with horizontal, diagonal and zigzag lines.