JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER PRINTS

[71] The Bridge, Amsterdam, 1889
Etching, signed in pencil with a butterfly and inscribed imp. and
signed again, on the verso, with the butterfly and annotated in the
artist’s hand first proof pulled, printed in warm black ink on buff
“antique” (pre-1800) laid paper; trimmed with the platemark still
just visible all round, leaving a signature tab: a proof in the first
state (of five); there was no published edition
6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches (16.5 x 24.1 cm)
Provenance: P. and D. Colnaghi, London; H. Wunderlich & Co.,
New York (stock no.a 33940); George Washington Vanderbilt (his
sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, May 14–16, 1974)
Reference: Kennedy 409; Glasgow 447
Whistler made two views of bridges while he was in
Amsterdam: this one, showing the Boltensgrachtje,
and Little Drawbridge, Amsterdam (g.448). In these prints
he revisited a subject with which he had experimented
in 1879 in etchings of such wooden bridges (subsequently
demolished) as Old Putney Bridge [cat.33] and
Old Battersea Bridge (g.188) in London, both images
inspired by Japanese woodcuts. Lochnan notes that
the Amsterdam bridges similarly “recall the truncated
views of slightly arched bridges found in Hiroshige and
Hokusai, and have a poetic and ethereal aspect as they
traverse the shimmering surface of the canal” (p.251). In
this print, Whistler created the carefully modulated areas
of light and dark that establish the overall richness of the
surface by etching numerous minute lines into the copper.
Not only did this mean that in some cases the plates
seem to have been underbitten, but the lines also wore
down very quickly and only a few impressions were
printed before the plates began to deteriorate in places.
This is a fine atmospheric impression of this exceedingly
rare work (only nine lifetime impressions have
been located, with all but this impression in institutional
collections), with a light veil of plate tone, slightly
stronger in the watery foreground and lighter beyond
the bridge and in the sky.
This impression has very little etched work in
the water in the central part of the print, consistent
with Whistler’s note on the verso that this is the first
impression pulled, and with Glasgow and Kennedy’s
description of the first state of this print. Instead of the
line work, Whistler has left waves of carefully wiped
plate tone to represent the movement and shading of the
water.
In this early state, the bridge railing in the center and
shadow work in the buildings at the left have not yet
been completed. In the later states Whistler gradually
added complex lines of additional shading and crosshatching
to the water and across the sky and further
defined the figures and other details. In this state the
lines are drawn with an exquisite delicacy that appears to
describe a sophisticated surface abstraction as much as a
specific city scene.
[72] Bridge, Amsterdam, 1889
Etching, signed in pencil with a butterfly and inscribed imp.; also
signed in pencil on the verso with a butterfly and numbered
11, printed in brown ink on thin laid paper; trimmed on the
platemark, leaving a signature tab; there was no published edition
6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches (16.5 x 24.1 cm)
Provenance: Vivian and Meyer P. Potamkin, Philadelphia; sale,
Sotheby’s, New York, May 11, 1989, lot 302 (the catalogue entry
mentions a note on the mat which identifies this impression as
formerly owned by Walter Steuben Carter and illustrated in the
Kennedy catalogue; comparison with Kennedy’s plate for his third
state and this impression, however, shows that the illustrated print
is not identical with the present sheet)
Reference: Kennedy 409; Glasgow 447
This impression is included in the Glasgow inventory,
K.4090301; only about eleven lifetime impressions in all
states are known (three were also printed posthumously
by Nathaniel Sparks). Ours is a very fine, shimmering
impression of this great rarity.
Although the structure of the composition was established
in the first state, Whistler’s reworking of the plate
through all five states, with the addition of the vigorous
lines in the sky and water and more densely shaded
figures and buildings, ultimately produced a darker,
stormier version of a scene that initially seemed quite
peaceful.
108 AMSTERDAM james mcneill whistler: prints 109