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Black Lion Wharf

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.271)
Number: 54
Date: 1859
Medium: etching
Size: 153 x 229 mm
Signed: 'Whistler' at lower right
Inscribed: '1859.' at lower right
Set/Publication: 'Thames Set', 1871
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 104
Catalogues: K.42; M.41; T.35; W.40
Impressions taken from this plate  (104)

TECHNIQUE

The composition is basically etched but the sky and a few very minor additions were made in drypoint.

PRINTING

A unique impression of the first state was printed in very dark brown ink ink on dark ivory medium-weight wove paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420101). Most impressions however were printed in black ink. They were followed by some two dozen impressions of the second state, an 'intermediate' third state in which the plate was cleaned up, and over forty impressions of the final state (as published) plus a handful of cancelled impressions.
The second state was mostly printed in black ink, but on various papers. Asian papers include dark ivory heavy-weight paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420201); fibrous cream Japan (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420202); ivory (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420209) and cream laid Japan (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420203, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420204); and light grey Japan paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420212).
Western papers include buff fibrous wove (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420207); heavy-weight off-white wove (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420z13); cream laid paper with small grey-blue fibres (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420211); and ivory laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420223) and ivory 'antique' (pre-1800) laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420228). An impression was printed on cream laid paper before January 1861 when it was sold by Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420222). Another on cream laid paper, almost certainly a similarly early impression on cream laid paper, was acquired by Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420214). An impression marked 'Early proof' by Whistler is on off-white laid paper with a partial 'HUDELIST' watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420221). One - still of the second state - was sold to the British Museum in 1863; it is on ivory Japan (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420209).
About 1862, Whistler recorded either the number of impressions printed, or more likely the number of impressions of some etchings in stock: 'Limehouse 10. / Tunnel pier 2./ Black Lion 8. / Graveur - 2 / Thames Police. 20 / Tyzack 5'. 18

18: [May 1862/1864?], GUW #12745, p. 38.

The final - fourth - state was also printed in black ink. The main edition as published for the 'Thames Set' in 1871 was on ivory laid paper with DE ERVEN DE BLAUW watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420208, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420302, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420323, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420334); and beehive and 'DEDB' watermarked paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420315). These include the impression from the published set that was acquired by Alexander Constantine Ionides (1810-1890) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420334) and another (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420315) bought by the South Kensington Museum - both now in the V&A.
Other laid papers include cream (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420308, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420317) and ivory (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420309, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420z16, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420z26) papers; off-white with a shield watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420303); heavy weight ivory with a Strasbourg Lily watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420320); ivory 'antique' (pre-1800) paper from an old ledger with blue edges (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420331); ivory with a posthorn watermark - this went to Dresden in 1897 (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420325); cream 'modern' (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420306, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420332); thin 'modern' with a lion watermark over 'P' (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420330); and cream 'modern' with a watermark of 'GR', a crown and wreath (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420304).
Asian papers include cream medium weight laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420305); cream Japan (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420311, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420335, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420336); cream Japanese laid tissue (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420324); cream laid Japan (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420326); soft off-white laid (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420338); ivory laid paper, possibly Asian (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420339); and ivory Japanese laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420z30).
Impressions from the cancelled plate were printed in black ink on ivory wove (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420401) and ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K0420403, Graphic with a link to impression #K0420404).