Court of the Ducal Palace, Venice

Piazza Dei Signori, Verona

Roman Doorway, Verona

[ Title unknown: Boat ]

In March of 1903 Washburn left Paris, where he had resided for the past six months, and went to Venice “to study the changing light effects on water”. Cloudy weather sent him to the museums, and in one he had his first encounter with Whistler’s etchings. The Venetian series was on display at the “New National Gallery of Venice”. They fascinated him and Washburn determined to try his hand at etching.

In the next two months he made a trip to Paris to purchase his first copper plates and etching apparatus, two trips to Munich, and after continuous experimentation produced four plates that he was willing to acknowledge: “Casa Cecchino”, “Casa \'d\'Oro”, “Grand Canal”, and “Square in Verona”.

From Venice he went Verona for two months, and made various other trips in the area. It’s not certain exactly how many plates he produced that he found acceptable. Certainly some of the prints included in this listing are experiments that Washburn never offered to a gallery.

Washburn published his own account, "How I Took Up Etching" in 1911.

The 1908 Albert Roullier exhibition catalogue lists 15 or 16 plates from Italy ( “Grand Canal, Piazzo San Marco” is listed twice., so its uncertain if it is a variant or an entirely different print). In a handwritten ms., undated, he wrote that he “selected only seven prints for description as all others are small and experimental. The seven he selected were (1) Casa Cecchino, (2) Calla die Erbe (h 5 1/2 w 7 inches), (3) Roman Doorway (4) Grand Canal, Venice (5) Near the Old Ghetto (6) Piazza die Signori (7) Grand Canal, showing Piazza San Marco.

Of the plates shown here, some are obviously early experiments; some, where the copies we have are not identified probably correspond to some of the known titles for which we do not have images.

Washburn left Italy in the Fall of 1903.