?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER The Palaces.
Etching and drypoint printed in dark brown on antique, cream laid paper, 1879-80. 249x356 mm; 9 7/8x14 inches. MacDonald's fifth state (of 6), with the shaded butterfly upper left. Signed with the butterfly and inscribed "imp" in pencil on the tab, lower left. From Twelve Etchings. A brilliant, richly-inked impression of this important etching, with heavy ink tone and the artist's selective wiping distinct in the water (similar to the impression in the Lunder Collection, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME).
MacDonald cites 56 impressions of this etching in public collections worldwide.
This is among Whistler's most popular Venetian etchings, a central scene of the Palazzo Giustinian Pesaro (left) and the Ca' Sagredo (right), on the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge. The gondolas docked in front of the palaces and the shimmering, exquisitely handled water evoke a quintessential Venice. This was Whistler's largest Venetian etching and one that he himself intended to be the focal image of the first Venetian set. Kennedy 187; Glasgow 223.
