Doorway, Gray's Inn |  Colby College Museum of Art, Maine (2013.335) | |
| Number: | 289 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 96 x 134 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 3 | |
| Known impressions: | 2 | |
| Catalogues: | K.300; M.294 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (2) | ||
The copper plate is the same or very close in size to several other etchings of this period (Petticoat Lane 299, The Young Tree 285, Doorway, Sandwich 323, The Landing Stage, Cowes 309 and Fish Women, Ostend 349). Of these, only Fish Women, Ostend 349 bears a plate stamp, that of Hughes & Kimber. Most of Whistler's plates of the period - 60 per cent - were acquired from Hughes & Kimber. However, it is possible that Doorway, Gray's Inn was part of a batch acquired elsewhere, either in London or Paris.
The plate was in Whistler's studio at his death and was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line across the lower left corner.