UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

St James's Park is in pure etching, with no drypoint.

It is very rare. However, on 4 September 1887 Whistler had a production line going, and, with some assistance, printed impressions of nine etchings: 'Scaffolding / The Steps / Miss Pettigrew / Sweet Shop / the Park / Cottage Door / Greengrocer / Rag shop / Maunders'. These including three impressions of 'The Park'. 11 The etchings on the list include Savoy Scaffolding 317; Little Steps, Chelsea 269 or The Steps, Gray's Inn 282; 'Miss Pettigrew' may have been The Little Cloak 370; The Village Sweet Shop 266; this etching; Cottage Door 252; Little Greengrocer's Shop, Chelsea 264 or T. A. Nash's Greengrocer's Shop 298; Old-Clothes Shop, No. 2 (The Rag Shop, Milman's Row 290, Little Maunder's 273, Rag Shop, Milman's Row, Chelsea 329 or Rag Shop, St Martin's Lane 328); and Fish-Shop, Chelsea 267 or Little Maunder's 273.

The two impressions kept by Whistler are both printed in black ink, with light tone, on ivory wove paper, one with a ''H SMITH & Son / 1824' watermark (), and are not trimmed. Of the other impressions, one is in black ink on buff wove paper and is trimmed and signed on the tab with Whistler's butterfly and 'imp.' to show that he had printed it (). Two are in dark brown ink, one on an off-white - almost grey - laid paper, trimmed and signed as before () and the other on ivory laid paper removed from a ledger, trimmed but not signed on the tab (). It is possible that it was not trimmed by Whistler, or that it was sold without his knowledge, and therefore was not signed.