The Little Putney |  Art Institute of Chicago (1938.1919) | |
| Number: | 187 | |
| Date: | 1879 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 124 x 201 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower right (2-final) | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 3 | |
| Known impressions: | 23 | |
| Catalogues: | K.180; M.177; W.226 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (23) | ||
TECHNIQUE
The composition is in etching, with only the signature in drypoint.
PRINTING
Comparatively few impressions were printed; a few first states (, , ), and twice as many second (e.g. ) and third states (e.g. , ) are now in public collections.
Early states were printed in black ink on laid paper, two of the sheets obviously removed from books, one with a 'Pro Patria' watermark () and another with an Arms of Amsterdam watermark, and an old inscription in Greek on the verso ().
Some later impressions were printed on buff (probably ivory discoloured to buff) laid paper (, ). The final state - sometimes richly inked and employing retrousage effects - is again on various papers including cream 'antique' (pre-1800) blue-edged laid paper from a book (); off-white laid watermarked with a crown over 'GR' and laurel branches (); cream 'antique' laid with a faint watermark, possibly 'L BUSIERE' (); off-white laid with the watermark of a lion over a bow (); and fine light-weight ivory laid (). A few are on Asian laid papers (, ).