PROVENANCE
Prints and a Few Drawings from Great Collections of the Past
Prints and a Few Drawings from Great Collections of the Past
- Master MR, Christ on the Cross
- Dürer, St. Bartholomew
- Dürer, Christ Before Caiaphas
- Raimondi, Philosophy
- Raimondi, Façade with Caryatids
- Beham, Job Conversing
- Beham, Satyr Sounding a Horn
- Beham, Peasant Couple Walking
- Caraglio, Martyrdom of St. Paul
- Aldegrever, Standard Bearer
- Pencz, Feeding the Hungry
- Pencz, Artemisia Preparing
- Falconetto, Tomb Surmounted
- Claesz, St. Peter Seated
- Treu, Noble Dancers
- Master FP, Hercules Killing
- Brun, February
- Solis, Arithmetria
- de Bruyn, The Circumcision
- Sadeler, Virgin and Child
- Goltzius, A Young Man
- Matham, The Planets
- Brizio, Extensive Landscape
- van de Velde, Fête Villageoise
- van de Velde, Backgammon
- van Uyttenbroek, Tobias
- van Uyttenbroek, Bacchus
- Rembrandt, The Small Lion Hunt
- Hollar, Woman with Headdress
- Saftleven, Dutch Peasant
- Ostade, Bust of a Peasant
- Stoop, A Grazing Horse
- Fyt, Set of Animals
- Bega, The Three Drinkers
- Anonymous, Landscape
- Nanteuil, Charles Benoise
- Nanteuil, Cardinal Mazarin
- Nanteuil, Pierre Seguier
- van Vliet, St. Jerome Sitting
- Cossin, Ornament Design
- Sirani, St. Eustace
- Somer, Hagar and Ishmael
- Daullé, La Muse Clio
- Tiepolo, The Holy Family
- MacArdell, Hannah, Mrs. Horneck
- Laurie, Elizabeth, Dutchess
- Denon, Village Scene
- Charlet, Les Français
- Pieraccini, Holy Family
- Daumier, Y n’y a rien comm’
- Daubigny, Les Ruines du Chateau
- Daubigny, Lever de Lune
- Meryon, Le Petit Pont
- Rops, La Poupée du Satyre
- Whistler, Old Hungerford Bridge
- Legros, Un Coin de Rivière
- Buhot, Frontispice
- Forain, La Rencontre
- Pennell, Hampton Court Palace
- Delâtre, Silhouette de Femme
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55. James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) Old Hungerford Bridge |
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(click on image to print)
Old Hungerford Bridge
Other Images:
Etching and drypoint, 1861, from 16 Etchings of the Thames, 134 x 208 mm., Kennedy 76 ii/iii. Very fine and early impression, before the smoke from the boat was outlined, on old, thin laid paper with large margins; slight wrinkling of the paper and a few brown dots in the margin. This is one of the less celebrated images from the Thames set, but it is no less brilliant in its subtle distinctions of focus, clear and detailed or soft and hazy, as determined by immediate atmospheric conditions. The supports of the bridge, for example, differ from one another in clarity due to mist and smoke and the foreground purposely lacks definition from the brilliance of light. The masterly arrangement of complex subject matter on the plate distinguished -- and still distinguishes -- Whistler from the host of other able etchers trying to do the same thing.
Provenance:
Otto Gerstenberg (Lugt 2785). Gerstenberg (1848-1935) was director of the Victoria Insurance Company in Berlin and, from about 1900, an avid collector of both old master and modern prints. Working largely through an agent, he bought widely (and expensively) at auctions of all the great collections, impressions of the best provenance. As some indication of the wealth of his collection, it contained virtually all the Dürer engravings and woodcuts, some fifty-one Schongauers, and most of the best and the rarest Rembrandts. During World War I, Gerstenberg managed to hide the collection in Switzerland, but after the war he felt obliged to sell it, hoping to keep it intact. That proved impossible, but ultimately most of the collection was sold through a number of dealers. However, the modern prints were not included, among them superb collections of Goya, Toulouse-Lautrec, Delacroix, Degas and Whistler. That remainder of the collection was stored in various places in Germany and Denmark, some of it, apparently, being lost in the Russian invasion of Germany toward the end of World War II. The rest was somehow dispersed to turn up here and there in sales and dealer catalogs. Their owner died in 1935, unaware of the fate of his great collection.
