UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Home > The Catalogue > Browse > Subjects > Etchings > Etching

Vauxhall Bridge

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.313)
Number: 75
Date: 1861
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 69 x 114 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.' at lower right
Inscribed: '1861' at lower right (G.2)
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 36
Catalogues: K.70; M.70; T.46; W.66
Impressions taken from this plate  (36)

TECHNIQUE

The original etched composition was modified by a limited use of drypoint shading on the bridge, and exuberant but soft drypoint lines on the sky. There are signs that the sky had also been modified by burnishing.

PRINTING

Only two impressions of the first state are listed, only one of which has been located (). This is a good clear impression, printed in black ink on 'modern' (that is, post-1800) laid paper.
Over two dozen impressions of the second state have been located. They are nearly all printed in black ink though some appear a warm black or dark brown. They are mostly on laid paper, both 'antique' (pre-1800) (, with a partial Strasbourg lily 'FI' watermark) and 'modern' (). The paper is in a wide range of colour including ivory (), dark ivory () and one in light blue with a partial watermark, possibly Brittania (). However, a few are on Japanese () and wove paper ().