James McNeill Whistler painter, print maker and etcher was born in Massachusetts, USA. He attended West Point Military Academy as his father wanted him to enter into military service. Whistler started etching there but he left in 1854, continuing to etch whilst a cartographer (map maker). He moved to Paris in 1855 where he studied art at first under Gleyre. He arrived in London 1858 where he completed the ‘Twelve Etchings from Nature’ set (the French Set) living initially with F.S.Haden, a surgeon by trade, whose daughter he later married. The collaboration between Whistler and his father-in-law during this period helped them both to develop their etching styles. Haden also became famous as an etcher. It was in 1859 that Whistler began his next series on the ‘Thames’ consisting of sixteen etched view of the Thames Docklands and published in 1869. He is best known for his view of Venice, his ‘Venetian’ set was published in 1880 by the Fine Art Society. A second set was published by Dowdeswell in 1886 titled ‘A Set of Twenty-Six Etchings by James A McNeil Whistler’.
Apart from his Venetian etchings, the plates which Whistler executed as a result of a trip to Amsterdam are much rarer. Impressions of his earlier etchings i.e French and Thames are often found with their margins but unsigned. His later etchings-the Venetian and Amsterdam prints are often found trimmed to the plate mark and signed with the butterfly monogram on a tab below.
Whistler was introduced to lithography by T.R.Way in 1878, but he preferred etching, most of his lithographs are figure studies, some of which were published as auto-lithographs in ‘The Studio’ magazine in the 1890’s.
WHISTLER, James McNeill
J.M.Whistler lithograph titled ‘Chelsea Rags, 1888’
£775.00
