Inked Impressions: Etchings in the Age of Whistler

Drawn from the collection of the Delaware Art Museum, Inked Impressions: Etchings in the Age of Whistler, tells the story of the etching revival in France, Britain, and the United States. The second half of the nineteenth-century saw a resurgence in the printmaking process of etching. Beginning in France and then spreading to Britain and the United States, the reinvigoration of etching led to experimental uses of the medium. This exhibition features the work of pioneering artist-etchers, including James McNeill Whistler, as well as those who inspired him—most notably, Rembrandt van Rijn—and those who carried Whistler’s innovations into the twentieth century.

Hands Etching, 1865. Seymour Haden (1818–1910). Etching. Plate: 5 1/2 × 8 3/8 inches, sheet: 7 1/2 × 10 7/16 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Charles Lee Reese, 1940.

La Vieille Aux Loques, 1858. James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903). Etching and drypoint. Plate: 8 1/4 × 5 13/16 inches, sheet: 10 5/16 × 7 1/2 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Richard G. Elliott, Jr., 1984.

Limehouse, 1859. James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903). Etching and drypoint. Plate: 5 × 8 inches, sheet: 7 x 10 1/4 inches. Gift of Dr. Delaware Art Museum, Charles Lee Reese, 1940.

Rotherhithe, 1860. James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903). Etching and drypoint. Plate: 10 11/16 × 7 11/16 inches, sheet: 11 7/8 × 8 15/16 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Charles Lee Reese, 1940.

Harlech Castle, Wales, 1882. Thomas Moran (1837–1926). Etching. Plate: 7 15/16 × 11 7/8 inches, sheet: 15 7/8 × 17 3/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Joseph S. Gotlieb, 1967.

A Watergate in Venice, 1883. Joseph Pennell (1857–1926). Etching. plate: 7 7/8 × 11 1/2 inches, sheet: 12 5/16 × 16 3/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1978.

Emma Rasmussen, 1904. Anders Zorn (1860–1920). Etching. Plate: 7 13/16 × 5 7/8 inches, sheet: 12 × 8 15/16 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland, 1993.

The Falls, Yosemite Valley, 1912. Joseph Pennell (1857–1926). Etching. Etching, plate: 12 3/8 × 9 1/8 inches, sheet: 15 1/2 × 9 15/16 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Charles Lee Reese, 1940.

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Organizers & Sponsors

This exhibition is made possible through the support of the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation and through the generosity of Sewell C. Biggs and foundations including the Choptank Foundation. This exhibition is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.