From the 'French Set' ('Douze eau-fortes d'après Nature') edition 61, 4th state of 4, Kennedy 15. Signed in the plate, lower left, and a faint Whistler with 's' reversed, upper left corner. Annotated in the plate, lower right, 'Imp. Delatre. Rue St. Jacques. 171'. ('J' reversed).
Image size 3 15/16 x 5 15/16 inches (101 x 135 mm); sheet size 5 1/4 x 6 3/8 inches (133 x 162 mm).
A superb, finely detailed impression, in warm black ink, on antique cream laid paper, with margins (1/2 to 7/8 inch); a small spot of toning to the right of the umbrella, otherwise in good condition. An early impression, before the clipping of the plate corners, with the upside-down signature in the plate upper left and the diagonal scratch through the clouds at right, distinct, and with very strong contrasts, no sign of wear and the patch of foul-biting lower-left prominent. Printed by Auguste Delâtre, Paris.
Whistler probably captured this image of a grisette, or working girl holding a parasol, in the countryside near Paris (the title translates to ("In Full Sun"). In November, it was included in "Douze eau-fortes d'après Nature" ("Twelve etchings from Nature"), known as the "French Set".
An impression of this etching was shown in Whistler's one-person show in London in 1874 and was praised by the critic of 'The Builder'. Impressions were also seen in the Memorial Exhibitions after Whistler's death: at the Groller Club in New York in 1904 and Paris in 1905. King Edward VII lent a French Set including 'En Plein Soleil' to the London Memorial Exhibition in 1905.
Collections: Art Institute of Chicago; Cleveland Art Museum; Davis Museum (Wellesley College); Detroit Institute of Arts Museum; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Harvard Art Museums; Library of Congress; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of New-Zealand; National Gallery of Art; Oklahoma City Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; University of Cambridge Museums; University of Glasgow Art Museum; Victoria and Albert Museum (London).
