35. Otto Bacher
(1856-1909)

Castello Quarter, Riva

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Bacher, Castello Quarter, Riva

Castello Quarter, Riva

Etching and drypoint, ca. 1881, 219 x 344 mm., Andrew, Venetian Series 12. Fine impression on india-appliqué with large margins, signed in pencil. Probably no one was closer to Whistler in Venice than the Cleveland-born Otto Bacher, who went to Venice as one of "Duveneck's boys," but memorialized his experience in a book titled With Whistler in Venice. Not only did Whistler take an interest in the younger man's work, and at least occasionally refer to him as his student, but he used Bacher's press to proof his own Venetian plates. Bacher himself was adulatory, and reviews of the time, in praising Bacher's etchings, likened them to Whistler's. One wonders what they used for eyes. Bacher's images are very like Duveneck's (which were also sometimes confused with Whistler's) and certainly one thing neither of them ever learned was Whistler's knowledge of how and what to leave out. Castello is one of the largest and best of Bacher's Venetian set; pencil signed impressions are not often seen on the market.