Oct 27, 2010 - Sale 2227

Sale 2227 - Lot 94

Price Realized: $ 12,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER
The Beggars.

Etching and drypoint printed in dark brown on thin, cream laid Japan paper, 1879-80. 308x210 mm; 12 1/8x8 1/4 inches. Ninth state (of 9). Signed with the butterfly and inscribed "imp" in pencil on the tab, lower left. From Twelve Etchings. A superb, richly-inked impression of this scarce print.

This is one of the larger etchings in the first "Venice Set,' made on a plate obtained directly from a Venetian craftsman. The view is through a relatively dark passageway from the Corte de la Carozze to the Campo Santa Margarita. Whistler reworked the figures several times after returning to London. In the earliest, most successful impressions, like here, the dark figure of the man midway through the passageway is sharply-highlighted by the area of light around him. Kennedy 194.