Sunflowers, Marché St Germain, Paris |  Hunterian Art Gallery (49908) | |
| Number: | 437 | |
| Date: | 1888/1893 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 223 x 282 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper centre | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 5 | |
| Catalogues: | K.422; M.417; W.258 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (5) | ||
TECHNIQUE
Sunflowers, Marché St Germain is pure etching.
PRINTING
The etching is rare. One of the first impressions was printed in black ink on ivory Japanese paper (). Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) owned an early impression, which was inscribed '2nd proof' (), and fully worked over by the artist in pen and ink. Both Mansfield and Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) thought that this was a second state but much if not all of this work is pen and ink. 12 It is a beautiful proof, on exceptionally thin, transparent paper. The suggested alterations were never made.
The plate was printed after Whistler's death, on the instructions of Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), in a very small edition of three by Nathaniel Sparks (1880-1956). On 18 June 1931 Sparks noted, with his distinctive spelling and writing:
'Sunflowers - (Plate in fine condition)
Etched Plate - (Three proofs)
On thin paper with Fine silkey surface
Two on same paper one with
Fluer-de-Lys combined in design
other (Fellows / 1804)' 13
Etched Plate - (Three proofs)
On thin paper with Fine silkey surface
Two on same paper one with
Fluer-de-Lys combined in design
other (Fellows / 1804)' 13
His impressions are both effective and sympathetic. They were printed in black ink on ivory Asian laid paper (), on off-white laid paper with a Strasbourg Lily 'FF' watermark () and on ivory laid paper ().