Limehouse – the Lithotint
JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER (1834-1903)
Limehouse, from Notes
lithotint, on cream Japan paper mounted to plate paper (as issued), 1878, Spink, Stratis & Tedesch 7, second state (of three); Way 4, Levy 8, signed in pencil (partially trimmed), from the edition of approximately 30, published by Boussod, Valadon, and Co., London, 1887, with margins, image: 6 3⁄4 x 10 3⁄8 in. (171 x 263 mm.), sheet (Overall): 10 3⁄8 x 13 3⁄4 in. (263 x 349 mm.)
A fine impression.
After the printer prepared several stones with areas of half-tone he brought them to the site, and Whistler then “sat out on a barge and made the lithotintl of the old wharves and shipping.” Whistler had made an etching (also called Limehouse) in this area much earlier, in 1859.
Several other immpressions of Limehouse are also signed “Whistler”, including the impressions at the Freer and the National Gallery, in Washington, and the impression at the Chicago Institute of Fine Arts.
Provenance
With William Weston Gallery, London.
Alan and Marianne Schwartz Collection, Detroit; acquired from the above in 1976
Literature