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James McNeill Whistler 1834-1903
Hurlingham, 1879signed with the butterfly in plate; printed in black ink on laid paperetching and drypointan impression in the fourth (final) state5 ½ x 8 inches (13.7 x 20.1 cm)Etched in January 1879, this serene scene of rowing boats reflected in the Thames was created under extreme personal duress. Whistler was in fear of bailiffs seizing his property for...Etched in January 1879, this serene scene of rowing boats reflected in the Thames was created under extreme personal duress. Whistler was in fear of bailiffs seizing his property for debt and worked quickly to finish the plate so it could be sold to the publisher Thomas McLean before his studio was raided. The site, Hurlingham Park in Fulham, was a popular sporting venue for London's high society to watch polo and boat races. The etching captures the transition between the professional life of the river, with its tugs and barges, and the leisure activities of the social elite.Provenance
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London; private collection, EnglandLiterature
F. Wedmore, Whistler's Etchings: a Study and a Catalogue (London 1886), no. 147;
H. Mansfield, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-Points of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (Chicago 1909), no. 178;
E.G. Kennedy, The Etched Work of Whistler (New York 1910), no. 181;
M.F. MacDonald, G. Petri, M. Hausberg, and J. Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, (Glasgow 2011), on-line website at http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk, no. 184
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