?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER Old Battersea Bridge.
Etching and drypoint printed in black on antique, cream laid paper, 1879. 202x293 mm; 8x11 1/2 inches, full margins. MacDonald's fifth state (of 7), with the outline of the houses faintly visible through the sail of the boat beneath the bridge and before the redrawn butterfly lower right, likely an early proof impression in this state. Signed with the large, shaded butterfly and inscribed "imp." in pencil, lower right. Pro Patria watermark. Ex-collection Colnaghi, London, with their stock numbers in pencil, lower right recto.
MacDonald cites approximately 50 impressions of this subject. We have found fewer than 15 impressions at auction in the past 30 years.
According to MacDonald, "Nearly 50 impressions of Old Battersea Bridge have been recorded, though not all have been located. Whistler was expected to print 25 for the Fine Art Society, and Frederick Goulding (1842-1909) was to print the remaining 25. However, Whistler had not completed the edition before he left for Venice in September 1879. On his return from Venice he apparently started printing again, and sold 21 impressions to the Fine Art Society on 8 April 1881. This actually suggests that Whistler decided to print them all himself." Kennedy 177; Glasgow 188.
