Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 2 |  Freer Gallery of Art (1904.59) | |
| Number: | 159 | |
| Date: | 1876/1877 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 228 x 155 mm | |
| Signed: | no | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 6 | |
| Known impressions: | 22 | |
| Catalogues: | K.171; M.168; W.139 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (22) | ||
TECHNIQUE
Some lines of the hat, face, collar, torso, hand, arm and costume appear to be etched, but, except for the face, were heavily retouched with drypoint. The plate was often printed with very rough, partial print tone, creating dramatic effects of light and dark, possibly to suggest theatrical spot-lighting (, ).
PRINTING
An impression of the second state was printed in black ink on cream laid paper with the watermark 'DEDB' and beehive (); a fourth state, on cream laid paper, also has the 'DEDB' watermark (). One third state, also in black ink, was on ivory laid paper, possibly with the countermark 'PD' (); another, a later and softer impression of the third state, in black ink on asian paper (), was printed by Maud Franklin (1857- ca 1941), proving that she was not just modelling, but helping in the studio, in the late 1870s. 13
13: Inscription by Whistler 'Very rare - printed by the "Maud" - '.
It was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879 in an edition of at least 20 and possibly 24. Cancelled impressions were all printed in black, usually on off-white laid paper, some with a partial Strasbourg Lily watermark () and one with the partial watermark of a crown with horns ().