?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER San Biagio.
Etching printed in dark brownish black on antique laid paper, 1879-80. 208x303 mm; 8 1/4x12 inches. MacDonald's seventeenth state (of 17), with the shading complete down to the rear curve of the arch. Edition of approximately only 30. A selected proof by the artist, counter signed with the butterfly and inscribed "Ex" in pencil, verso. Signed with the butterfly and inscribed "imp" in pencil on the tab, lower left. Arms of Amsterdam watermark with the letters RK counter mark. From Twenty-Six Etchings. Ex-collection Colnaghi, London, with their stock number in pencil, verso; and Robert Hartshorne (Lugt 215b, verso); thence by descent to the current owner. A superb, richly-inked impression of this very scarce etching.
From the second set of Venice etchings, one of 26 subjects in all (there were 12 etchings in the first set, see lot 300), published in an edition of approximately 30 by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell, London.
According to MacDonald, San Biagio was probably etched by Whistler in the summer or autumn of 1880. At this time, he was staying at the Casa Jankowitz on the Riva San Biagio, along with fellow artists Otto Bacher (1856-1909) and Frank Duveneck (1848-1919); the view shows the beach where his fellow artists kept their boats. San Biagio was likely made around the same time as several other important Venice etchings by Whistler. Kennedy 197; Glasgow 237.
