The Pool | ||
Number: | 49 | |
Date: | 1859 | |
Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
Size: | 140 x 217 mm | |
Signed: | 'Whistler.' at lower left | |
Inscribed: | '1859.' at lower left | |
Set/Publication: | 'Thames Set', 1871 | |
No. of States: | 6 | |
Known impressions: | 85 | |
Catalogues: | K.43; M.42; T.47; W.41 | |
Impressions taken from this plate (85) |
PUBLICATION
EXHIBITIONS
It was then shown, in 1863, in a group of 'Vue des bords de la Tamise, eau-forte' with Limehouse 048 and Rotherhithe 070, at the Salon in Paris. 15 Philippe Burty (1830-1890), reviewed the group, not entirely favourably:
14: London Thomas 1861. See REFERENCES: EXHIBITIONS.
15: Paris Salon 1863a (cat.no. 2757).
17: London RA 1863 (cat no. 1003).
18: The Athenaeum, 16 May 1863, p. 655.
19: The Athenaeum, 23 May 1863, p. 688 (in GUL PC1/17).
20: [F.G. Stephens], 'The Royal Academy', Athenaeum, No. 1856, 23 May 1863, p. 688.
Examples appeared in print dealer's exhibitions including those of Craibe Angus in Glasgow, F. Keppel & Co. (1902) and H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York (1889, 1898, 1903), and a 'trial proof' and a later state were shown at Obach & Co. in London in 1903. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought three impressions from Wunderlich's in 1898 (, , ). 24
As Whistler's fame grew, the etchings were in demand for major shows on both sides of the Atlantic. Impressions were seen in international exhibitions including the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888, lent by Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924). 25 It was among etchings considered by Howard Mansfield (1849-1938), for exhibition at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and one was lent by Mansfield to a show at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1902 (). 26 Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) lent an impression to the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (). 27 Another was shown at an art and industrial show in Wolverhampton in 1902.
After Whistler's death, impressions were shown at several Memorial Exhibitions including the Grolier Club, New York, 1904 and in Paris, 1905. An impression owned by King Edward VII was lent to the London show in 1905, and was probably sold soon afterwards, but has not been located. 28
22: Liverpool 1874(cat. no. 490).
23: New York 1881 (cat. no. 60).
24: New York 1898 (cat. no. 38).
25: Glasgow 1888 (cat. no. 2552).
26: Mansfield to Whistler, 10 January 1893, GUW #04000. Philadelphia 1902 (cat. no. 947 (41)).
27: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 39).
28: London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 41).
SALES & COLLECTORS
Early impressions of the third state may have been bought in France, by Jules Gerbeau (d. 1906), and Jules Michelin (, ) for instance, and in London by William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916) (). James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) had three impressions of The Pool, which were sold in his sale Sothebys, 27 June 1876 et seq. (lots 719-721). Two were described as the first state before drypoint in the sky, second as on Japanese paper, and another state with the sky' was also on Japanese paper. The first of these was bought by Galsworthy.
29: V&A Register of Prints, p. 32.
30: Whistler to W. H. Carpenter, 17 October 1863, GUW #11109.
Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), bought one impression of The Pool in 1888 and examples of both the third and fourth states ten years later (, , ). An impression of the fourth state was apparently submitted to Whistler about 1890 and signed with his butterfly, possibly at the request of a dealer or purchaser - in this case, Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) ().
Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892), bought a third state at the Rev. Walter Field's sale at Sotheby's on 12 June 1877 for £2.10.0 and sold it to the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, in July 1877, for £3.3.0. By 1898, when P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, sold another to the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden, the price had risen to £10.0.0 ().
31: C. A. Howell to Whistler, [November 1877], GUW #02180; Whistler to A. M. Jarvis, [6 September 1879], GUW #09170.
32: Sotheby's, 23 June 1873 (lot 127).
35: Sotheby's, 22 April 1887 (lot 190) and 3 March 1892 (lot 91).
36: Christie's, 8-9 March 1892 (lot 338); 13-4 July 1897 (lots 306, 315).
37: The Times, London, 25 November 1890,