Monitors
1887Etching and drypoint on laid paper
K.318 (2nd state, undescribed by Kennedy)
The Whistler Estate, bequeathed by Rosalind Birnie Philip, 1958
Hunterian Art Gallery, GLAHA 46922
Whistler sketched the bored spectators and the monitors (warships with rotating gun turrets) with quick, spontaneous strokes of the needle. He printed a few impressions of this etching at a time, carefully wiping the plate and leaving a light skim of ink over the surface to suggest the sea. Seven impressions of Monitors were printed by 19 August 1887, eight on 23 August, and eleven on 1 September 1887. 1.