Whistler’s House, Old Chelsea

Whistler’s House, Old Chelsea

Dundee Art Galleries & Museum: 272-1987-106

Artist: Haden, Francis Seymour

Date: 1863

State: 7/7

Size: 17.8 x 33.7 cm

Medium: Etching and Drypoint

Details Etching with drypoint. Black ink on laid paper. Inscription at bottom left: ‘Whistler’s House at Old Chelsea – Seymour Haden ft. an 1863’.
Description This impression was published in Haden’s Études à l’eau-forte (printed by August Delâtre, Paris and London, 1865-866). Although intended to be published in an edition of 250 only 180 copies were eventually printed. Haden stated; ‘Great care was taken in the drawing of this plate especially in the foreshortening of the barges which gave me infinite trouble I remember. It wore out very soon and had to be destroyed before it had given its full quota of impressions (25) … It is now very rare and brings 7 to 9 guineas at auction’. Quote taken from Haden’s own handwritten annotations of Sir William Drake’s A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched Work of Francis Seymour Haden. As cited in Richard S. Schneiderman, A Catalogue Raisonné of the prints of Sir Francis Seymour Haden. London, Robin Garton Ltd., 1983, p.143.

The star connected by a line to a chimney indicates the location of Whistler’s house (7 Lindsay Row). The barges and workmen in the foreground of the scene illustrate just how busy Chelsea was in the 1860s.
Exhibited Dundee It is likely that this print was the one exhibited at the Dundee Fine Art Exhibition, Albert Institute, 1879 (West Gallery, No. 1163, no price) and either already in Orchar’s collection or subsequently bought by him. Dundee Fine Art Exhibition Catalogue 1879, The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum.
Catalogue Entry
  1. Philippe Burty, ‘L’Oeuvre de M. Francis Seymour-Haden’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Vol.17, 1864, pp.271-87 (27)
  2. Philippe Burty, Catalogue of Haden’s Etchings in Études à l’eau-forte par M. Francis-Seymour Haden. Paris, Jules Claye, 1866 (29)
  3. Sir William Drake, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched Work of Francis Seymour Haden. London, Macmillan and Co., 1880. (47)
  4. H. Nazeby Harrington, The Engraved Work of Sir Francis Seymour Haden, P.R.E. Liverpool, Henry Young & Sons, 1910 (54)
  5. Richard S. Schneiderman, A Catalogue Raisonné of the prints of Sir Francis Seymour Haden. London, Robin Garton Ltd., 1983 (50)
Other Collections According to Richard S. Schneiderman, A Catalogue Raisonné of the prints of Sir Francis Seymour Haden. London, Robin Garton Ltd., 1983.

  1. Albertina, Vienna, Austria
  2. Collection of Alexis Pencovic, San Francisco, California, USA
  3. British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, London, England, UK
  4. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France
  5. Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York, USA
  6. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, USA
  7. Collection of D.S. Whitelegge, England, UK
  8. Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
  9. Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum, The University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  10. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  11. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
  12. New York Public Library, New York, USA
  13. Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England, UK
  14. Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut, USA

See Schneiderman for locations of earlier states.
References
  1. Rodney K. Engen, Dictionary of Victorian Engravers, Print Publishers and Their Works. Cambridge , Chadwyck-Heley, 1979
  2. Garton and Co., British Printmakers 1855-1955. Wiltshire, Garton and Co., 1992
  3. Kenneth M. Guichard, British Etchers 1850-1940. London, Robin Garton Ltd., 1977
  4. Ian Mackenzie, British Prints: Dictionary and Price Guide. Woodbridge, Antique Collectors’ Club, 1998

 

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