Chelsea |  Freer Gallery of Art (1889.22) | |
| Number: | 181 | |
| Date: | 1878/1879 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 133 x 207 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | Printseller's Association, 1879. | |
| No. of States: | 5 | |
| Known impressions: | 66 | |
| Catalogues: | K.182; M.179; W.148 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (66) | ||
STATE
Five states are known before cancellation.
State 1
Signed with a butterfly at lower right.
The composition is complete.
The embankment, seen through the wide span, is white; the trees have little foliage; the plate has light scratches rather like cancellation marks.
State 2
Light vertical lines are added on the embankment and buildings in the distance, and light shading is added along the horizon at left; short diagonal lines, running both left to right and right to left, distinguish the hulls and holds of the barges; the reflections of the piers are augmented with horizontal lines; the tree to left of the house is enlarged; the piers are completed with additional shading and other details; light horizontal lines are added above the clouds over the tower at right; lines are added above the butterfly, indicating either waves or the edge of the shore, or both; there is prominent foul biting in the sky and water.
Stamped by the Printsellers' Association, and published by The Fine Art Society, 28 January 1879.
State 3
Short drypoint lines shade a strake on the unmanned barge; bold slanting drypoint lines above the butterfly suggest the edge of the beach; new horizontal lines are added above the clouds; the piers, bridge, and distant shores are touched with drypoint; more foliage is added on the tree to left of the house.
The impression reproduced above is affected by a faint offset image on the right, from an error in printing, which makes the image difficult to read.
State 4
More branches are added in drypoint on the tree to left of the house; faint left-right diagonals (\\\) are added in the sky above the central and rightmost spans of the bridge.
State 5
Short strokes of drypoint foliage are added on the trees by the house at right.
The drypoint on the trees is considerably worn in late impressions, as in the impression reproduced below.
Published in this state in the Art Journal, 1882.
State 5 (cancelled)
Cancelled with crossed diagonal lines.