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Windows opposite Hotel, Bourges

Impression: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
(1943.3.8638)
Number: 397
Date: 1888
Medium: etching
Size: 100 x 67 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 2
Catalogues: K.401; M.400
Impressions taken from this plate  (2)

KEYWORD

architecture, building, Renaissance architecture, window.

TITLE

Possible variations on the title are as follows:.


'The Windows opposite, Bourges (French Plates)' and 'Hotel Windows' (1888, Whistler). 3
'Windows opposite -' and 'Hotel Windows Brusseles' [sic] (1889, Whistler). 4
'Windows The. Opposite' and 'Hotel Windows The Brus' [sic] (1890/1891, Whistler). 5
'Old Windows, Brussels' (1903/1935, possibly Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) 6
'Windows opposite Hotel, Bourges' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 7


There are inevitably difficulties in disentangling the title and history of this etching from that of Windows, Bourges 398. It is likely that it is Bourges rather than Brussels. Mansfield's title, 'Windows opposite Hotel, Bourges' is therefore the preferred title.

3: List, [August 1887/1888], GUW #13233.

4: List, 18 July 1889, GUW #13235.

5: List, [1890/1891], GUW #13236.

6: Envelope containing copper plate, Hunterian Art Gallery.

7: Mansfield 1909[more] (cat. no. 400).

DESCRIPTION

At right is a dormer window with small panes (4 high x 2 wide), slightly open, under a gently arched top, in a steeply sloping roof.. Under it are two windows barely indicated. At top left, presumably in the next house, is a 4 x 4 paned window, and below it a taller window (5 x 4 panes) with a fan window above it.

SITE

Bourges is a historic town in the Centre région, France, south-west of Tours. It is noted for its gothic cathedral of Saint-Etienne. Brussels was suggested as the site in two lists but there is no etching of this description and size among the known Brussels plates. It may be that Bourges and Brussels got muddled in the process of completing the studio inventory. 8 The subject is closely related to a similar subject, Windows, Bourges 398, and to Renaissance Window 417, both rather larger etchings.

8: 18 July 1889, GUW #13235; [1890/1891], #13236.