JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER PRINTS

[60] The Little Lagoon,
1879–80
Etching and drypoint, signed in pencil
with a butterfly and inscribed imp., printed
in warm black ink on laid paper, trimmed
at the platemark, leaving a signature tab:
an impression in the fourth (final) state,
published in an edition of 100 by The Fine
Art Society, in 1880 in the First Venice Set
9 x 6 inches (22.7 x 15 cm)
Reference: Kennedy 186; Glasgow 216
The Little Lagoon was the smallest
work in the First Venice Set, and the
artist’s minimal use of line illustrates
the difficulty many contemporary
critics had with Whistler’s
work. The Daily News reviewed the
exhibition at The Fine Art Society
and commented ‘In the “Little
Venice” and “The Little Lagoon”
Mr Whistler has attempted to convey
impressions by lines far too few
for his purpose.’ However these two
works seem to describe the vastness
of the open water using plate tone,
wiping and the forms which caught
his eye.
The work was first exhibited at
The Fine Art Society in December
1880 (no.8) and published in the
First Venice Set. Whistler delivered
a total of 66 impressions of the
etching to The Fine Art Society, the
last four in April 1889, followed by
another from the cancelled plate
(now in the Cincinnati Art Museum,
a gift from Frank Duveneck).
[61] The Venetian Mast,
1879–80
Etching, signed with a butterfly and
inscribed imp., printed in black ink on
ivory laid paper, watermark Fellows 1804
(Stratis 119), trimmed to the platemark
by the artist, leaving a signature tab;
with Whistler’s two tiny circles on the
verso (indicating that he considered this a
superior impression); in the eleventh state
(of twelve), published in an edition of
100 by The Fine Art Society, in 1880 in the
First Venice Set (no.10)
13 3/8 x 6 3/8 inches (34.4 x 16.6 cm)
Provenance: P. & D. Colnaghi & Co.,
London (their stock no.in pencil verso:
C.28658)
Reference: Kennedy 195; Glasgow 219
The print shows a view looking
west up the Calle Larga dello
Stendardo, featuring a mast
surmounted by the Lion of St.
Mark, in the San Marta area of
Venice. The extreme verticality
of the plate’s format here seems
to have been extended to accommodate
the mast but also serves to
counterbalance the foreshortening
of the row of houses, preventing the
viewer’s eye from being drawn into
the distance. Instead, all the focus is
on the group of figures in the foreground,
one more closely described
than those in most of the artist’s
Venetian views. Published as part of
the First Venice Set in 1881.
92 VENICE james mcneill whistler: prints 93