Windows, Bourges |  Freer Gallery of Art (1903.166) | |
| Number: | 398 | |
| Date: | 1888 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 149 x 80 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 2 | |
| Known impressions: | 3 | |
| Catalogues: | K.400; M.399 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (3) | ||
Whistler went to the Loire valley with a selection of copper plates. The larger ones mostly came from Hughes & Kimber, but Windows, Bourges is one of several plates measuring 149 x 80 mm that have no maker's stamp; they may therefore have been acquired locally or in Paris. Six plates of similar size (the range is from 147 x 80 mm to 149 x 81 mm) were etched in Tours, Bourges and Loches (Courtyard, Rue P. L. Courier, Tours 391, Rue des Bons Enfants, Tours 392, Doorway, Stables - Loches 416, Children, Amboise 432, Booth, Market Place, Loches 425, Market Women, Loches 423, Tour Saint Antoine, Loches 414 and Windows, Bourges 398).
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. It was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line across the lower left corner; there is slight pitting along the top edge and centre of the design.