Etching printed on Japanese paper, 1858
Based on a watercolour made at Lutzelbourg in Alsace, on the way to the Rhine, but etched after Whistler’s return to Paris.
Like The Old Rag Gatherer, this impression is printed on paper which was probably prepared with an overall tone of ink before printing the plate (the paper is more yellow than that used for ‘The Old Rag Gatherer’). It is inscribed in graphite Fine proof from Thomas, suggesting that it was one of the impressions printed by Delâtre for Serjeant Thomas after he had bought the plates of ‘The French Set’ in 1860. It is printed with a sumptuous amount of surface tone left on the plate to create shadows, a hallmark of Delâtre’s printing methods. The inscription appears to be in the hand of Thomas Nelson MacLean, the sculptor whose prints came to the Fitzwilliam in a gift from his widow Katharine Anne Riches.
Given by Mrs T. H. Riches 1923
Collections record: P.2078-R
