Spaightwood Galleries

Whistler was one of the most controversial artists of the last part of the nineteenth century and delighted in puncturing the stuffiness of the English whose lifes he delighted in enlivening. Yet despite his abrasive personality, his art is among the most subtle of his times. Whistler made it his mission in England, where he spent the latter part of his life, to attack the notion that the artist must portray the subjects upon which he worked recognizably, prefering instead to present the inner harmony that he felt when painting, etching, or making prints. His work moves from realism to Impressionism to Symbolism to Abstraction.

Selected Print Bibliography: Campbell Dodgson, The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler (London: The Studio, 1922); Ruth E. Fine, Drawing Near: Whistler Etchings from the Zelman Collection (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984); Edward G. Kennedy, The Etched Work of Whistler (San Francisco, Alan Wofsy, 1987); Mervyn Levy, Whistler Lithographs: An Illustrated Catalogue Raisonne (London: Jupiter Books, 1975.); Katharine Lochnan, The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984); Carole McNamara, Whistler: Prosaic Views, Poetic Vision (Ann Arbor: University Of Michigan Press, 1994); Denys Sutton, James McNeill Whistler Paintings, Etchings, Pastels & Waterolours (London: Phaidon, 1966); Frederick A. Sweet, James Mc.Neill Whistler (Chicago: The Art Institute, 1968); Martha Tedeschi and Britt Salvesen, Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography (Chicago: The Art Institute, 1998); Stephanie Wiles, ed., James McNeill Whistler & the Etching Revival (Middletown: Davison Art Center, 1999).

A Street in London (Kennedy 238 undescribed state). Original etching, 1880. Signed in the plate. A very clear and fine impression with wide margins as published in Etchings (Dodd & Mead, 1880) before the edition published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 1881. Signed in the plate with the butterfly upper right. One of Whistler's most important cityscapes freezing motion to show us the heart of the city in mid beat. It is interesting to compare this with the impression printed by Cadart the following year. Though both impressions are very good, Cadart's Gazette des Beaux-Arts edition is darker while this one is more atmospheric, and hence closer to Whistler's own style at this period. Image size: 178x113mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Alderney street (Kennedy 238 ii/ii). Original etching, 1881. Signed in the plate. Fine impressions with wide margins as published by the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris and printed by Cadart, the best printer in Paris during the last third of the 19th century. Signed in the plate with the butterfly upper right. One of Whistler's most important cityscapes freezing motion to show us the heart of the city in mid beat. Image size: 178x113mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

The Little Putney, No. 1 (K. 179 ii/ii). Original etching, 1879. Our impresion is from the edition of 200 impressions published by the Fine Art Society, London, 1883. An archetypal Whistler landscape, signed in the plate with the Butterfly. Image size: 133x205mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Swan and Iris (Kennedy 241 ii/ii). Etching after a painting by Cecil Lawson, 1883. As published in Edmund Gosse's tribute, Cencil Lawson: A Memoir (London, 1883). A superb impression with wide margins from the only edition. A beautifully-printed example of one of Whistler's finest nature studies as framed by the arch of a bridge in the upper left corner. Very hard to find and very much worth the finding. Image size: 134x81mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

A Child on a Couch No. 1 (Kennedy 124). Original etching. In this etching, we see Whistler drawing on copper, sketching rapidly so that the etched view of the recling child runs into the head of a woman in a hat seen in profile. Only known state: only impressions from the cancelled plate are known for this etching. Image size: 129x202mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

A Child on a Couch No. 1 (Kennedy 124). Original etching. In this etching, we see Whistler drawing on copper, sketching rapidly. Only known state: only impressions from the cancelled plate are known for this etching. An uncommon image. Image size: 129x202mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information. (This is the same plate as above, but seen vertically)

Astrud: A Literary Man (K. 53). Original etching, 59. Signed in the plate. The plate was cancelled after printing. Our impression is from the cancelled plate. Signed in the plate lower-left. Image size: 225x151mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Agnes (Kennedy 134). Original etching. This impression is taken from the cancelled plate & printed on laid paper with a high-crown watermark. Repaired one-inch tear in lower-left margin outside plate mark.. Image size: 224x151mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Chelsea (Kennedy182 a). After the first two states of Fulham were published, Whistler sold the original plate to the Fine Art Society, who made a photogravure of the original etching which was published under the title Chelsea both in England (by J. S. Virtue and Co) and America (where it was published by Patterson & Neilson, New York). It is one sixteenth of an inch smaller on each side, there is a positive line all around it, and the corners are at a sharp angle. A line in the water at the stern of the boat is shorter than in the true impression, and the small tree at extreme right differs from the original both in trunk and at the top. An archetypal Whistler landscape. Ours is very strong, sharp impression of the photogravure on heavy wove paper trimmed close to the border. Image size: 133x200mm. Price: SOLD.

Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.

To purchase, call us at 1-800-809-3343 (1-508-529-2511 in Upton MA & vicinity) or send an email to spaightwood@gmail.com. We accept AmericanExpress, DiscoverCard, MasterCard, and Visa.
We also accept wire transfers and paypal.

Spaightwood Galleries is located at 120 Main St (aka Highway 140) in Upton MA at the corner of Main St. and Maple Ave. in a rehabilitated former Unitarian Church. For directions and visiting information, please call. We are, of course, always available over the web and by telephone (see above for contact information). Click the following for links to past shows and artists. For a visual tour of the gallery, please click here. For information about Andy Weiner and Sonja Hansard-Weiner, please click here. For a list of special offers currently available, see Specials.

Visiting hours: Saturday and Sunday noon to six and other times by arrangement.
Please call to confirm your visit. Browsers and guests are welcome.