?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
JAMES MCBEY Barcarolle.
Etching printed in dark brownish black on antique, pale blue laid paper, 1926. 375x212 mm; 14 3/4x8 3/8 inches, wide margins. Edition of 80. Signed and numbered "XL" in ink, lower margin. A superb, luminous impression of this scarce etching, with selective wiping to highlight the water.
McBey (1883-1959) was working as a bank clerk in the early 1900s when he decided to take up etching. By the 1920s, his etchings were fetching prices on a par with Rembrandt and Whistler. He made 32 etchings of Venice after a long stay there in 1925, this is his most celebrated Venetian work. As noted by Getscher in The Stamp of Whistler, "These Venetian plates are almost an homage to Whistler." Barcarolle is a variant of Whistler's Nocturne: Palaces, etching, 1880 (Kennedy 202). The barcarolle is the tune sung by the Venetian gondoliers as they push their boats through the water. Hardie 233.
