UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Recto, above; verso, below:

The copper plate bears the oval maker's stamp: 'C. SERVANT / PLANEUR / 45, B DES GDS AUGUSTINS'. This is found on a small group of etching plates, namely Confections pour Dames [475], Mme Pelletier, Blanchisserie, Paris [481], Café Corazza, Paris [484], Antony's Print Shop, Rue de Seine [477], Polichinelle, Jardin du Luxembourg [467], Boulevard Poissonière, Paris [483], The Band, Luxembourg Gardens [466], Under the Statue, Luxembourg Gardens [464] (all of which date from 1894 or later in the 1890s), and Flaming Forge [490] and Sleeping Child, Ajaccio [488] (both of which date from 1901). It is the same size as The Band, Luxembourg Gardens [466], which is known only from the copper plate.

The envelope containing the copper plate of Mme Pelletier, Blanchisserie, Paris contains a note of the title, and also an older note on a label pasted on the envelope, which reads 'Blanchisseuse "Pelletier" To be destroyed'; the last phrase was overwritten in ink, 'To be destroyed / cleaned off.' This note dates from Whistler's life-time, but the order was not carried out. 9

The plate was in Whistler's studio at his death, and was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line across the lower left corner.