The Embroidered Curtain
James Whistler (1834-1903), The Embroidered Curtain 1889, etching and drypoint, printed in brown on laid paper; 240 x 159 mm (9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches), trimmed on the platemark all round; signed in pencil with the butterfly and inscribed imp on the tab [also signed with the butterfly upper left], Kennedy 410 first state (of seven); Glasgow 451 first state (of ten)
watermark: Pro Patria
provenance
Robert Rice, his mark (not in Lugt) on verso of backing sheet
David Tunick, Inc., New York (his code in pencil on verso of backing sheet DT …)
Gordon Cooke Ltd., London
Samuel Josefowitz, Pully, Switzerland (acquired in 1989)
Literature
Sixty-Five Prints by James McNeill Whistler, sale catalogue, David Tunick, Inc., New York 1975 (Catalogue Number 7), no. 43
A very fine, shimmering impression of this great rarity; only a few other first state impressions are recorded, one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, another at the Art Institute of Chicago.