A Sketch of Shipping |  Freer Gallery of Art (1898.361) | |
| Number: | 57 | |
| Date: | 1859 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 154 x 228 mm | |
| Signed: | no | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 20 | |
| Catalogues: | K.151; M.48; T.84; W.127 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (20) | ||
A Sketch of Shipping may date from 1859. It is unfinished and difficult to date.
Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) thought it dated from about 1859. 1 The copper plate is close in size to a number of etchings dating from 1859 (Stevens' Boat Yard 056, Whistler with a hat 044, Fumette's Bent Head 058, Arthur Haden 066, Mr Mann 073). Of these, only Stevens' Boat Yard 056 is of a similar subject, and might help to confirm the dating.
1: Mansfield 1909[more] (cat. no. 48).
However, a similar size was used for some works in the early 1870s, including several subjects done at Speke Hall near Liverpool (Mrs Leyland, Sr. 123, Sketches of Heads 138, Speke Shore 139) and others that must date from London in the second half of the 1870s (such as Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 1 158, Agnes 146).
The latest possible date is 1879 when it was published with the set of Cancelled Etchings by the Fine Art Society.