The Tyresmith

 

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

  1834 - 1903 (biography)

1890  

Transfer lithograph 

6 11/16 x 7" image size (with the legend removed) 

printed butterfly, lower left center on wall 

from the edition of between 500 - 1,000 printed on supplementary stones by the Way firm for the 15 N 

 

Cat. no. 36, pg. 152, A Catalogue Raisonne I, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, The Art Institute of Chicago, in association with the Arie and Ida Crown Memorial, NE2312.W45A4 1998; Levy 41; 

smooth ivory wove 

I/I, published 

T.R. Way 

20891 

$1,250.00 

Quoted from The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, Vol. I catalogue raisonné, pg. 153:

"Smithies and forges fascinated Whistler throughout his career, and are frequent subjects in both his etchings and lithographs. The Tyresmith, his second lithograph dealing with the theme (see cat. no. 27 for the first), depicts the interior of a wheelwright's workshop in Chelsea. It was one of five lithographs (cat. nos. 34-38) transferred and proved in October 1890... According to an annotation in T.R. Way's hand on an impression in the British Museum, London, the two smiths working at an anvil are "Mending the Hoop."

"The Way firm transferred The Tyresmith to supplementary stones and machine printed a large edition for the 15 November 1890 issue of The Whirlwind. It was the second of three lithographs Whistler contributed to the journal (see also cat. nos. 34, 37), and it appeared opposite a sonnet by Stephane Mallarme."

"The published edition was machine printed from supplementary stones on smooth ivory wove paper, which has often discolored to cream. Periodical impressions tend to be slightly coarser, glossier, and higher in contrast than those printed by hand. Many impressions have been timmed to remove the legend." Such is the case with this impression.