James McNeill Whistler

The Embroidered Curtain

Date 1889
Materials Incised copper plate
Dimensions 23.8 cm x 15.8 cm
Marks Signed on the plate with a butterfly at the upper right; inscribed above doorway "WATER / TE / VUUR"
Further information GLAHA 50472.
Edward G. Kennedy, The Etched Work of Whistler, New York, The Grolier Club, 1910 (410, 5th out of 7 states).

Note Looking at this copper plate you will see how an etching is made. The plate would have been first covered with an acid-proof varnish and the scene, in this case a building and canal in Amsterdam, would then have been drawn using a special needle. Once the picture was completed, the plate would have been placed in an acid bath. You can see the lines created when the acid ate into the copper plate where the needle had scratched away the varnish. Having been taken out of the acid, the plate would have been covered with ink and then wiped to remove excess surface ink. Ink would have remained in the grooves and a print would have been made on to paper by passing the plate through a rolling press. The image on paper was the reverse of the image on the plate.

Related works GLAHA 46999.