Oct 27, 2010 - Sale 2227

Sale 2227 - Lot 95

Price Realized: $ 4,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER
Bead-Stringers.

Etching and drypoint on antique cream laid paper, 1879-80. 226x150 mm; 8 7/8x6 inches. Sixth state (of 9), with the head of the woman at the right holding the child still in three-quarters view. From Twenty-Six Etchings. A superb, early impression, with drypoint on the head of the woman holding the child and on the face of the seated girl to the left.

This is from the second set of Venice etchings, one of 26 subjects in all (there were 12 etchings in the first set), published in an edition of 30 by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, London, in 1886. The first Venice set was exhibited at the Fine Art Society, London, in December 1880; a larger exhibition including the second set of Venice etchings was held in 1883. Meanwhile, the printings of both of these sets varied dramatically: the second set was fully printed by July 1887, while the first set was still incomplete at the artist's death in 1903.

This intimate scene was probably drawn on the plate from life, in the San Biago section of Venice, near the Casa Jankovitz where Whistler lived at the time. Kennedy 198.