Whistler: The Gentle Art of Making Etchings
Until May 30; Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow

Fifty years ago, the estate of American-born artist James McNeill Whistler was left to Glasgow University by his sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip. Along with collections in Chicago and Washington DC, it’s the best Whistler hoard in the world. It’s not surprising then, that the university landed a major research grant to put together an online catalogue raisonné of every etching Whistler ever made.

Now four years into the five year Whistler Etchings Project, the Hunterian Art Gallery becomes a shop window for the detailed work of the academic team. Whistler: The Gentle Art of Making Etchings isn’t a lavish introduction to the artist’s printmaking career (that was done five years ago with Copper Into Gold) – it’s more of a tantalising teaser for Whistler geeks.

Whistler was recognised in his own time as the greatest etcher since Rembrandt, because of his technical innovations, his ground-breaking talent, and his wily self-marketing. He first learned to etch in the US Coast Survey Office, and the opening exhibit is his technical rendering of Anacapa Island from that period.

Though not outlined in the exhibition, Whistler’s etching career can be seen as a series of phases. His early “French Set” was precise, linear and picturesque, while in his later Thames and Venice Sets the artist moved towards blurred, tonal images. His final collection of prints in Amsterdam, combining everything that had gone before, were the most abstract of all.

All of this is discernible if you take the time to analyse what you see. But taking her eye off the bigger picture, the curator concentrates on the fine detail thrown up by the research project: attention is given to the number of prints known to exist. Historical collectors are named, and techniques discussed. Different states of the same print are shown side by side – four versions of The Doorway show Whistler tinkering with the central female figure over the course of more than a decade. In The Piazzetta, he kept moving the pigeons.

If you like this kind of fine detail, you’ll love the show. If you want a more general overview of Whistler’s etchings, it’s tricky to see the wood for the trees.

Catrìona Black, Sunday Herald 01.02.09