Arthur Haden

Maker(s)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Historical period(s)
1859
Medium
Copper
Dimensions
H x W (overall): 23 x 15.5 cm (9 1/16 x 6 1/8 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1890.7
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Tool and Equipment
Type

Printing plate/block

Keywords
portrait, United States
Provenance

To 1890
Frederick Keppel and Co., London, England, and New York to 1890 [1]

From 1890 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Frederick Keppel and Co. in 1890 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Whistler List, Plates, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Label

An etched copper plate may yield hundreds of impressions, but it will eventually wear down from the pressure of printing.  After an appropriately sized edition of an etching or drypoint is completed, the plate can be canceled by scratching lines across it.  Because Whistler's prints were highly valued collector's items, impressions such as this were sometimes made from the defaced copper plates, which themselves became collector's items.

Published References
  • Howard Mansfield. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-points of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Chicago, 1909. .
  • Katharine Lochnan. The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler. Exh. cat. New Haven and London, 1984. .
  • Edward G. Kennedy. The Etched Work of Whistler: Illustrated by Reproductions in Collotype of the Different States of the Plates. 4 vols., New York, 1910. .
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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