JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL WHISTLER (American 1834-1903) A RARE PRINT, "The Title to the French Set," ONLY STATE, PARIS, NOVEMBER 1859, black ink etching on off-white wove (chine collé) paper signed in plate, Delâtre, printer and date, dedicated in foreground, framed with translation of words. Plate: 4 3/8" x 5 5/8" Note: Only one state of the offered etching exists. Printed in a set of only twenty by Delâtre in Paris, the etching was used as the title page of a portfolio of Whistler etchings. "Whistler here depicts himself outdoors working on a copper plate surrounded by fascinated children. The image responds to a Rhineland tour he made in the summer and fall of 1858 and was used to introduce "Douze eau-fortes d'après Nature" (Twelve Etchings from Nature), the artist's first published set. The title indicates his realist affinities with lettering added to credit Auguste Delâtre as printer and dedicating the work to Seymour Haden. As Whistler's brother-in-law, the latter had encouraged his first serious etchings." Courtesy: The Met Museum, accession number 83.1.34.Reference: Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Joanna Meacock James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow online website at http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk. University of Glasgow, 2012, cat. no. 22.