Little Market Place, Tours |  Art Institute of Chicago (1934.586) | |
| Number: | 389 | |
| Date: | 1888 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 128 x 178 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 5 | |
| Catalogues: | K.375; M.375 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (5) | ||
TECHNIQUE
The plate was mostly etched, with drypoint used only for shading the central doorway and the pavement in front of it, and was usually printed with very pale overall plate tone. Traces of lines from an earlier idea or an earlier subject may be seen at left, in front of the market booths. Irregular patches of jagged lines suggest the sky, the awnings, trestle tables and shadows. Thinner, rather more tentative lines suggest the buildings. The foreground - most of the bottom half of the plate - is almost empty, conveying a sense of space.
PRINTING
There was only a small print-run of Little Market Place, Tours. One impression is printed in dark brown ink on Asian laid paper, (). Others are in black ink on Japanese paper (, ) - the ink appearing slightly warm in colour on the paper - and one is in black ink on cream wove paper, with almost no surface tone (). All are trimmed to the platemark and signed on the tab with a butterfly and 'imp.' to show that Whistler had printed them.