?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER Battersea: Dawn.
Drypoint printed in dark, brownish black on antique, cream laid paper, 1875. 148x224 mm; 5 7/8x8 3/4 inches, full margins. Third state (of 4), before the reflection of the flagstaff in the water. Signed with the butterfly and inscribed "imp" in pencil, lower left. Arms of Amsterdam watermark. A superb, early impression of this extremely scarce print, with well-inked burr and with crisp inky plate edges.
We have found only one other impression at auction in the past 20 years.
In this highly atmospheric scene, Whistler made considerable use of soft, hazy tones, surpassing the effects of Early Morning, Battersea (see lots 65 and 66) and setting a precedent for the Venice etchings. The delicately modeled banks of Battersea, across the Thames from Chelsea, essentially a manufacturing area, were transformed into misty ambiguity and set on a high horizon line typical of Venetian views such as Nocturne (lot 93). Kennedy 155.
