UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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The Tow-Path

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1891.12)
Number: 325
Date: 1887
Medium: etching
Size: 50 x 84 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 2
Catalogues: K.254; M.250
Impressions taken from this plate  (2)
Etching: PK254_01
Recto, above; verso, below:
Etching: PK254_02
This is one of Whistler's smallest etchings. It bears the maker's oval stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' It is close in size to several plates including two landscapes - Dieppe 251 and Little Chelsea (Memorial) 315 - and two figure subjects, Two studies of women's heads 331 and Little Nude Figure 330.
The plate was cancelled with crossed diagonal lines, possibly in 1891. Whistler discussed with Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) the possibility of printing one or two impressions from cancelled plates so that prospective buyers could see that no further prints were possible. Whistler's 'secretary' William Bell wrote when Kennedy visited London in June 1891: 'in accordance with his intentions expressed to you the other day, Mr Whistler has already destroyed a great number of the plates in question, and herewith sends you the proofs as an interesting fact of reference - ' 8

8: W. Bell to E.G. Kennedy, 8 June 1891, GUW #09674.

Others cancelled at this time include Little Steps, Chelsea 269, Gates, City, London 280, The Dray Horse 292, Petticoat Lane 299, Salvation Army, Sandwich 319, The Ramparts, Sandwich 324 and Little Nude Figure 330.
The plate was in Whistler's studio at his death. It was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935.