JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER PRINTS

[34] Lobster Pots – Selsea Bill, 1880–81
Etching and drypoint, signed in pencil with a butterfly and
inscribed imp. on the tab; printed in dark-brown ink on laid paper,
watermark partial Strasbourg lily, trimmed by the artist on the
platemark at upper margin and with the platemark still just visible
on the other three sides; in the fourth (final) state
4 3/4 x 8 inches (12 x 20.3 cm)
Provenance: B. Bernard MacGeorge, Glasgow (Lugt 394); Henry
Harper Benedict, New York (Lugt 1298); Charles C. Cunningham,
Jr., New England (Lugt 4684)
Reference: Kennedy 235; Glasgow 241
The etched inscription at lower right locates the scene in
Selsea Bill, a small town on the south coast of England
where Whistler was visiting Charles Augustus “Owl”
Howell, a flamboyant Anglo-Portugese dealer and
collector with a shady reputation. He had been introduced
to Whistler by the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
There is a wistfulness in this slight composition
showing lobster pots on a curving beach, suggesting
that the print was made right after Whistler’s return
from his first trip to Venice. While, as Robert Getscher
remarks, “even the Venetian subjects are never this
inconsequential” (p.76), to twenty-first century eyes,
this makes the print all the more intriguing. The lobster
pots, sketchily described as groupings of parallel stripes
and tumbled together, are not immediately identifiable;
their curious forms establish a peculiar and charming
kind of abstraction. Walter Sickert would soon afterwards
move similarly close to pure abstraction in some
of his beach-related etchings like Scheveningen, Bathing
Machines of 1887 (Bromberg 95) and, especially, the small
Scheveningen, Wind-Chairs and Shadows of the same year
(Bromberg 91).
The plate was first exhibited at The Fine Art Society
in London in 1883. In 1886 it was published as part of the
Second Venice Set.
[33] Old Putney Bridge, 1879
Etching and drypoint, signed in pencil with a large, elaborate
shaded butterfly, lower right, printed in dark-brown ink on laid
paper, watermark 1814, an impression in the seventh (final) state,
published by The Fine Art Society, probably printed in 1881
7 7/8 x 11 5/8 inches (20 x 29.6 cm) sheet 12 1/4 x 17 7/8 inches
(31.3 x 45.5 cm)
Reference: Kennedy 178; Glasgow 185
The Fine Art Society’s relationship with Whistler began
with the new etchings of the Thames he made in 1879,
following a visit from Ernest Brown who had joined
the staff of the gallery. The plate is on a large scale and
shows the change in the artist’s approach to the Thames
since the etchings he had made in Wapping and the
docks in the summer of 1859. The central motif is the
old bridge, by this stage somewhat dilapidated. It was
shortly to be demolished and replaced by the new bridge
of Cornish granite which was opened in 1886.
Whistler’s instinct for preservation and his interest in
Japanese art combine in this work, which successfully
incorporates both the Western tradition and the influence
of Japan. This impression was probably printed
in 1881 or earlier and is printed on a full sheet signed
with a large butterfly with veined wings. The printing
of the edition was not completed until 1889. The Fine
Art Society received 21 impressions in 1885, twelve in
1887 and a further six in 1887. The cancelled plate was
delivered to The Fine Art Society in 1889, after Whistler
had taken a print showing the cancellation, but the
plates current whereabouts are unknown. The work
was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1879
(no.1233).
50 london and the thames james mcneill whistler: prints 51