8. James Abbott McNeill Whistler
(1834-1903)

San Giorgio

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Whistler, San Giorgio

San Giorgio

Etching, 1879-80, 209 x 305 mm., Kennedy 201 iii-iv/iv, from The 26 Etchings (2nd Venice Set). A fine proof impression of an unrecorded state, with the removal of the undulating lines in the sky, as described for the fourth state, but before the completion of the dome and before the etched signature, printed in dark brown with an even plate tone on old laid paper, the sheet trimmed by the artist to a thread margin outside the platemark. There was, apparently, no tab left, and therefore no pencil signature. The scene, which is, like all Whistler's etchings, topographically reversed, shows a mass of small fishing vessels in the lagoon, a larger ship just in front of the church of San Giorgio at the rear left and the Riva along the remainder of the background.