UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: british museum

Bridge, Amsterdam

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1906.119)
Number: 447
Date: 1889
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 165 x 241 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 5
Known impressions: 13
Catalogues: K.409; M.409; W.267
Impressions taken from this plate  (13)

PUBLICATION

Bridge, Amsterdam was never published. However, it is considered part of Whistler's clearly defined but unpublished 'Amsterdam Set'.

EXHIBITIONS

It was first exhibited with the other Amsterdam etchings by the London print dealer, Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851), in London in 1890. H. Wunderlich & Co. exhibited it in New York in the same year and again in 1898, and Obach & Co. showed an impression in London in 1903. 11

11: London Dunthorne 1890 ; see REFERENCES : EXHIBITIONS.

Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) and Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) lent impressions to a show organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (Graphic with a link to impression #K4090202 and Graphic with a link to impression #K4090203). 12

Impressions were shown in the Memorial Exhibitions held after Whistler's death, at the Grolier Club in New York and, lent by Walter Steuben Carter (1824-1904), in Boston, both in 1904, and John Charles Sigismund Day (1826-1908) lent one to the London Memorial show in 1905. 13

12: Chicago 1900 (cat. nos. 233, 233a).

13: New York 1904a (cat. no. 287); Boston 1904 (cat. no. 194); London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 267).

SALES & COLLECTORS

The price set by Whistler was £12.12.0. He sold one impression on 10 March 1890 to the London art dealers, Messrs Dowdeswell and another on 13 March to the Fine Art Society. 14 The Dowdeswell purchase may have been one acquired by Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935) (Graphic with a link to impression #K4090307), which later went via Arthur H. Hahlo, New York, to Albert Henry Wiggin (1868-1951) and so to Boston Public Library.

14: GUW #00916, #13002.

On 3 April or 6 May 1890 Whistler sold a 'later state' to H. Wunderlich & Co. of New York. 15 In September 1896 Wunderlich's had two impressions, valued at £10.10.0 each, on consignment from Whistler. One (stock no. a 27484) was eventually bought by Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971), who gave it to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Wunderlich's also handled an impression inscribed '1st proof pulled' (Graphic with a link to impression #K4090104, stock no. a 33940) but it is not known where they bought it.

15: GUW #06585 and #13058.

Whistler sold an impression on 9 April 1890 to Frederick Keppel (1845-1912) of F. Keppel & Co., and on 26 June 1891 to Edmund F. Deprez (1851-1915) of Deprez & Gutekunst. 16 He also sold impressions direct to collectors. On 15 May and 28 June 1890 he sold fine impressions to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (Graphic with a link to impression #K4090203) and Howard Mansfield (1849-1938). 17

An impression from the collection of the late Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) was bought at auction in 1892 by Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851), for £10.0.0 - which was close to the price Whistler obtained (possibly Graphic with a link to impression #K4090305). 18

16: 23 June 1890, GUW #13064; #13070.

17: GUW #01501; 21 July [1890], #13048.

18: Sotheby's, 3 March 1892 (lot 340).

Henry Gurdon Marquand (1819-1902) owned an impression inscribed '1st State' by Whistler, which was bought by F. Keppel & Co. at auction in America after his death, and sold to Freer in 1903 (Graphic with a link to impression #K4090102). 19

19: American Art Association, 23-30 January 1903.

Three impressions were printed after Whistler's death on the instructions of Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who bequeathed them to the University of Glasgow (Graphic with a link to impression #K4090302, Graphic with a link to impression #K4090306). The latter was exchanged with the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, to enhance their collection of the Dutch subjects.