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Nocturne: Furnace

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1934.596)
Number: 208
Date: 1879/1880
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 171 x 233 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Second Venice Set', 1886
No. of States: 12
Known impressions: 46
Catalogues: K.213; M.210; W.183
Impressions taken from this plate  (46)

STATE

Twelve states are known before cancellation, which occurred in three stages.

State 1

Etching: K2130101
Signed with a butterfly at centre left.
The composition is mostly complete; there is foul biting near the four corners.

State 2

Etching: K21301a
The smith inside the doorway has been removed and is replaced by a lightly sketched figure, facing forward, with head bent; other interior details are lightened, including the rafters, the window on the far wall and the hood over a furnace at right; the lower wall and barrel at the left side of the doorway are darkened, and the shape of the barrel is more clearly defined; considerable shading is added to the façade of the building, around the window and doorway; very fine vertical lines now shade the prow of the gondola at left; a series of right to left diagonal lines (///) is added to the reflection below the left side of the doorway.

State 3

Etching: K2130202
The lightly sketched figure is removed and replaced by a shorter one, in etching, wearing an apron, holding a tool and facing to the left; there are two cast shadows to his right; the lower edge of the hood of the furnace at right is redefined with darker lines.

State 4

Etching: K2130203
A small patch of drypoint diagonals is added near the end of the long reflection to left of centre below the doorway.

State 5

Etching: K2130606
New and strengthened drypoint lines are added on the left side of the diagonals near the end of the long reflection below the doorway, slightly enlarging that part of the reflection.

State 6

Etching: K2130302
A band of strong diagonal lines is added to the reflections below the right corner of the doorway; a shorter band of less dramatic diagonals is added below the right corner of the doorway; much of the foul biting at the four corners is removed or worn away, most notably at lower left and right, where formerly there were many small spots.
Published in this and later states by Messrs Dowdeswell and Thibaudeau with the Twenty-six Etchings (the 'Second Venice Set') in 1886.

State 7

Etching: K2130403
The hair and face of the figure in the window at left are more clearly defined, and there are now horizontal lines above the head, indicating window panes; fine diagonal lines are added to left of the window and another group of fine diagonals extend from the butterfly signature to the prow of the gondola; many heavier lines - mostly diagonals - are added to the shading between the window and the doorway as well as along the right side of the door.

State 8

Etching: K2130502
The furnace hood is darkened with new lines; a patch of cross-hatched lines is added to the façade of the building, just above the waterline at right; the reflections below the doorway are darkened and extended with vertical, horizontal and a few diagonal lines.
The impression illustrated has a small ink spot at lower right, which is not part of the etched design.

State 9

Etching: K2130602
Diagonal lines are added to the reflections below both sides of the doorway.

State 10

Etching: K2130603
Fine left to right diagonal lines (\\\) now cross the right to left diagonals (///) on the left side of the door frame.

State 11

Etching: K2130702
A patch of dark horizontal lines is added to the centre of the right side of the window frame; a group of slightly diagonal lines shade the top of the wall at right, and below them, more pronounced diagonals extend the shading on the wall further to the right; a small group of diagonal lines now shade the horizontal band along the waterline, between the gondola and the door frame; short diagonal lines are added to the band of reflection below the centre of the doorway; at lower right, a group of fine longer diagonals extend from the horizontal lines below the door frame toward the edge of the image.

State 12

Etching: K2130703
The horizontal band along the waterline, between the gondola and the door frame, is extended further to the left with curving zigzag lines; left to right diagonal lines (\\\) now shade the top of the wall above the left and centre of the doorway.

State 12 (cancelled a)

Etching: K2130804
Cancelled with six diagonal lines.

State 12 (cancelled b)

Etching: K2130803
Cancelled with nine diagonal lines, two at the bottom being crossed.

State 12 (cancelled c)

Etching: K2130802
Cancelled with many diagonal lines, a number of them are crossed.