Doorway, Gray's Inn |  Colby College Museum of Art, Maine (2013.335) | |
| Number: | 289 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 96 x 134 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 3 | |
| Known impressions: | 2 | |
| Catalogues: | K.300; M.294 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (2) | ||
The copper plate is the same or very close in size to several other etchings of this period (Petticoat Lane [299], The Young Tree [285], Doorway, Sandwich [323], The Landing Stage, Cowes [309] and Fish Women, Ostend [349]). Of these, only Fish Women, Ostend [349] bears a plate stamp, that of Hughes & Kimber. Most of Whistler's plates of the period - 60 per cent - were acquired from Hughes & Kimber. However, it is possible that Doorway, Gray's Inn was part of a batch acquired elsewhere, either in London or Paris.
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.