Etching and drypoint on cream laid paper, 1859. 73x198 mm; 2 7/8x8 3/4 inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Signed with the butterfly in pencil, lower right. Coat-of-arms with 3 stars watermark. A brilliant, early impression with crisp, inky plate edges.
This is probably Whistler's earliest etching of the Thames, made soon after his move from Paris in May 1859. The view shows the newly-built Houses of Parliament (with Big Ben still scaffolded) and Westminster Bridge, looking south to Lambeth. Two years later, the bridge was demolished and the Thames embanked.
Early impressions such as this, signed with the butterfly in pencil, are exceedingly scarce. Only a small number of proof impressions were printed for private circulation (probably on Haden's press at his house in Sloane Street); it was published as one of the 16 etchings in the "Thames Set" in London in 1871. Kennedy 39.
