Etchings Institutions search term: saturday review
Long Venice | ||
Number: | 211 | |
Date: | 1879/1880 | |
Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
Size: | 128 x 311 mm | |
Signed: | butterfly at lower left | |
Inscribed: | no | |
Set/Publication: | 'Second Venice Set', 1886 | |
No. of States: | 8 | |
Known impressions: | 37 | |
Catalogues: | K.212; M.209; W.182 | |
Impressions taken from this plate (37) |
PUBLICATION
In selecting the 'Second Venice Set', Whistler chose a variety of subjects and formats. Whistler included some prints that matched ones in the first set: Long Venice, for instance, was the equivalent of The Little Venice [238].
EXHIBITIONS
19: London FAS 1883 (cat. no. 42).
Quilter actually wrote this about Whistler's oil portraits, and not about the etchings, but since it was a general attack on the artist's work, Whistler here promoted Long Venice as an example of his precise and expressive draughtsmanship and subtle use of colour, and thus contradicted 'Arry's criticism.
20: 'Arry [H. Quilter], 'The Grosvenor Gallery', The Times, London, 8 May 1882, p. 5, col. a.
Another critic, in 1883, wrote concerning San Biagio [237] and Long Venice: 'the view of the Riva dei Schiavoni from an eminence, which he affectedly calls "Long Venice", are excellent examples. Besides their local truth and wonderful mode of execution, they are remarkable for their perfect balance of light and shade, and broad simplicity of effect.' 23 The only trouble with this flattering remark is that it is more appropriate for The Riva [229]!
Later in the same year an impression of Long Venice went to the reprise of the F.A.S. exhibition by H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York, and other impressions starred in Wunderlich shows again in 1898 and 1903, and with Keppel & Co. in New York in 1902. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought one from the Wunderlich 1898 show (). 24
Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent his impression to an exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (). 25 James Cox-Cox (ca 1849- d.1901) lent one from his large collection to an International Exhibition in Glasgow in 1901. 26
After Whistler's death, impressions were shown in Memorial Exhibitions, at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904, by the Copley Society in Boston in 1904, in Paris in 1905, and, lent by King Edward VII, at the Whistler Memorial Show in London in 1905. 27
21: Anon., 'Mr. Whistler', Whitehall Review, 22 February 1883 (GUL PC25/35).
22: 'Mr. Whistler, His Arrangement in White and Yellow, His Etchings and His Catalogue', Pictorial World, 31 March 1883 (GUL PC 8/8).
23: Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Etchings', Globe, 19 February 1883 (GUL PC 25/19).
24: New York 1898 (cat. no. 161). See REFERENCES : EXHIBITIONS.
25: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 162).
26: Glasgow 1901 (cat. no. 237).
27: New York 1904a (cat. no. 184); Boston 1904 (cat. no. 143); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 182).
SALES & COLLECTORS
Some orders were received after Whistler's 1883 exhibitions at the Fine Art Society and at Wunderlich's in New York. These included two orders for Long Venice at the F.A.S., two ordered by Wunderlich's on 20 June and another two on 20 September 1883. 30
Most impressions were sold by Messrs Dowdeswell and Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892) after publication of the etching. A fine, delicately wiped impression typical of the published edition was given by Messrs Dowdeswell to the British Museum in 1887 (). Thibaudeau sold one with a complete set through H. Wunderlich & Co. to Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) in 1890 ().
31: GUW #07289.
32: Christie’s, 27 November 1888 (lot 181); Sotheby's, 3 March 1892 (lot 277); Christie’s, 13-14 July 1897 (lot 316).
33: Morning Post, 4 March 1910 (GUL PC22/127).