LITERATURE: Kennedy 241; Mansfield 238; McDonald et alii 247.

Fine impression on the full sheet of the sixth and final state after reduction of the plate, aside from the edition of Cecil Lawson, a Memoir (London, 1883) by E. W. Gosse.

'It is evident that Mr. Whistler and the Japanese were engaging [Lawson's] thoughts about this time [...]. The same tendancy is visible in a extremely fine composition which he never finished, a swan startled under Old Battersea Bridge [...]. Of this Mr. Whistler has very kindly made an etching for the present memoir.' (Gosse, p. 21-23).

The print is after an unfinished painting by Cecil Gordon Lawson (1851-1882), Whistler's brother-in-law. The copper plate is lost.