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Cameo, No. 1 (Mother and Child)

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(44507)
Number: 459
Date: 1891
Medium: etching
Size: 178 x 128 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 15
Catalogues: K.347; M.333; W.224
Impressions taken from this plate  (15)

PUBLICATION

Cameo, No. 1 (Mother and Child) was not published.

EXHIBITIONS

It was first exhibited by H. Wunderlich & Co., in New York in 1898. 13 Whistler exhibited an impression at the first exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in 1899, when he was President. 14 In the following year, impressions were lent by Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) and Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) to the show organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago (Graphic with a link to impression #K3470102 and Graphic with a link to impression #K3470103). 15

An impression was shown by Obach & Co. in London in 1903. Others were shown at the Memorial Exhibitions held after Whistler's death, at the Grolier Club in New York and in Boston (lent again by Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916)) in 1904, in London and Paris in 1905, and in Rotterdam, lent by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), in 1906. 16

13: New York 1898 (cat. no. 288); see REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.

14: London ISSPG 1899 (cat. no. 237).

15: Chicago 1900 (cat. nos. 194a, 194).

16: Boston 1904 (cat. no. 167); Rotterdam 1906 (cat. no. 70).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler focussed his sales pitch on collectors like Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919). Whistler's secretary, William Bell (fl. 1886-1892) wrote to Freer: 'I am directed by Mr Whistler to send off to you the enclosed proof of his first new etching // He understood that you wished him to select for you anything that he should do.' 17

17: 6 June 1891, GUW #11567.

Whistler sold directly to some private collectors, to Freer first, then on 29 June to Freer's business colleague, Frank J. Hecker (1846-1927), on 23 July 1891 to Howard Mansfield (1849-1938), and on 1 August 1891 to L. Carter, all for £10.10.0. 18

He first sold an impression to a print dealer, Edmund F. Deprez (1851-1915), on 5 April 1891, for £10.10.0. 19 This price was comparatively high. William Bell, wrote to Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) in 1891:

18: GUW #11567, cf. Merrill 1995, p. 78 (Letter 8); #13084; #13049.

19: 21 January-27 June 1891, GUW #13070.

'I am directed by Mr Whistler to write and say that in consideration of your remarks he has fixed the price of the little new plate at ten guineas - for the present - He thinks however that if you take two or three proofs, you might pay him the cheque yourself without waiting for many letters across the Atlantic.' 20

20: 8 June 1891, GUW #09674.

It is possible that an impression was sold at this time, for a 'Mother and Child' was among 'Etching Proofs' catalogued at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1892. 21

21: Raymond L. Wilson, Index to American Print Exhibitions 1882-1920, Lanham, MD, 1988.

In any case, it would appear that Kennedy did not like the price or the etching, and a few years later, Whistler wrote:
'I am more and more impressed, as our letter writing goes on, with the vast far offness of America! -
What inducement is there for me to send way out there things that go to continue one's history here? - There, according to what you yourself say the people are still in the early stage of National greatness - to put it nicely, that requires the legs of the piano to be draped! - To them a nude figure suggests at once the absence of clothes - and general impropriety - only!
Money - is the only consideration - the only inducement to offer to the artist for sending his work so far away from Paris - and that they wont give enough of - You told me you wouldn't sell the etching "Cameo No 1" at the price I would have asked, because of the thinness of the drapery!!- ' 22

22: 4 February 1894, GUW #09715.

Kennedy's reply was scathing:
'You will excuse me writing so plainly I know, as you know it is done in a most friendly spirit. You speak of "Cameo #1". Now, Mr. Whistler who has bought it? Any Parisians? Have any Parisians bought your pictures? The English & Americans are the picture buyers. ... Cameo #1 at 10 /10 /- is considered high in price, besides people don't care for it. An artist cannot be expected to produce masterpieces every time he paints, or etches, but the public has a right to it's likes and dislikes, as has the individual.' 23

23: 20 February 1894, GUW #07231.

However, Kennedy's firm, H. Wunderlich & Co. had two 'on hand' in 1897, and sold impressions in 1899 and 1901 for £10.10.0. 24

Six years later, Whistler still kept to this price, selling an impression to Siegfried Bing (1838-1905), at £10.10.0. 25 Finally Whistler managed to sell one on 24 December 1902 to Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) for an even higher price, £15.15.0. 26

Among impressions sold by Wunderlich's are one later owned by Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3470107), while Knoedler's sold another to Margaret Selkirk Watson Parker (1867-1936) (Graphic with a link to impression #K3470111). These were given in due course to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and to the University of Michigan Art Museum.

24: Wunderlich's to Whistler, [August 1897], GUW #07289; 24 March 1899, #07305; 16 April 1901, #07330.

25: 19 May 1897, GUW #13034.

26: GUW #13040.