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The Beach, Ostend

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46978)
Number: 353
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 82 x 185 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 4
Catalogues: K.354; M.347
Impressions taken from this plate  (4)

PUBLICATION

The Beach, Ostend was not published.

EXHIBITIONS

Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) lent an impression to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (). 10

One was also shown after Whistler's death at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904. 11 No other shows have been recorded.

10: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 244).

11: New York 1904a (cat. no. 268).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold an impression of what he then called 'Beach' on 17 November 1887 to the London print dealer, Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) for £5.5.0. 12 He sold another to H. Wunderlich & Co. of New York on 3 May 1888 for £4.4.0. 13 Then on 14 May he apparently sold Wunderlich's an impression for £5.5.0 (noted in their stockbook as £5.5.0 with 20% discount). 14 It is not entirely clear if this was a separate transaction. His last recorded sale was to the Fine Art Society, London, on 27 March 1889 for £5.5.0. 15

Of the extant impressions, one was bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1906 () and the other by the Hamburger Kunsthalle (). Posthumous impressions were commissioned by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who left two to the University of Glasgow (, ).

12: GUW #13016.

13: Wunderlich's to Whistler, #17, GUW #07158.

14: GUW #13659; stock book a14404.

15: Whistler to Ernest George Brown (1853/1854-1915), GUW #13000.