Lithograph on antique cream laid paper, 1893. 240x148 mm; 9 1/2x5 7/8 inches, wide margins. Edition of 32. Signed with the butterfly in pencil, lower center. A superb impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
This is one of 7 lithographs Whistler made during a sketching trip with his wife Beatrix to Brittany in July and August 1893.
Several new techniques that Whistler and his printer, Thomas Way, employed for this subject account for the richly-printed results on the lifetime impressions like the current work. Whistler used a softer crayon than before to make this drawing on the transfer paper. He then softened the drawing in places with "stump work" using another softer, greasy crayon (prior to this lithograph he had used "stump work" directly on the stone after transfer). Finally, Way dampened the paper differently when he printed the Brittany stones. The "velvety" quality that Whistler referred to in this lithograph is particularly noticeable in the reflections of the houses on the canal in the foreground. Way 39; Levy 65; Spink 63.
