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The Fan

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1896.50)
Number: 375
Date: 1887/1888
Medium: etching
Size: 135 x 98 mm
Signed: butterfly to left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 2
Catalogues: K.345; M.343
Impressions taken from this plate  (2)

PUBLICATION

It was not published.

EXHIBITIONS

The Fan is very rare and was rarely exhibited. However, Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) lent an impression to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (), and to the Grolier Club in New York in 1904. 9 The title is not always possible to distinguish from other etchings and it may have been shown elsewhere.

9: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 239); New York 1904a (cat. no. 338).

SALES & COLLECTORS

Whistler sold an impression of The Fan on 11 February 1888 to the London print dealer Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) for £5.5.0. 10 This may possibly have been the impression acquired by Emma Regina Martin (1921-2009), which is signed with a butterfly of about 1887 or 1888, although it is not known when and where she acquired it (). Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought an impression from Dr James M. Hart on 1 October 1896 (). In the following year, in September 1897, Whistler sold an impression to H. Wunderlich & Co. at the reduced rate of £3.3.0. 11

10: GUW #13018.

11: Wunderlich's to Whistler, GUW #07287.