The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 37, no. 4

J. A. M. WHISTLER Nocturne, 1878
Probably the most influential printmaker
of the nineteenth century was the expatriate
Whistler, who sparked a revival of
etching and lithography among his colleagues.
Rotherhithe (see p. 3) is an
excellent example of the controlled technique
so characteristic of his etchings
made in the late 1850s and early 60s. To
the etched line and to detail. He would
change the latter practice in the First
Venice Set of 1880, where hand-applied
plate tone greatly enhanced the delicate
images. Prior to these prints, he experimented
with atmospheric toning in his
lithotints of the late 1870s, including
Nocturne, but, working with layers of
subtle gradations that characterize the
Venice Set. In Nocturne, however, blue
paper adds a richness comparable to that of
his paintings of the same period. Because
of artistic indifference to lithography,
considered tainted by commercialism,
Whistler abandoned the process until the
late 1880s, when a revival of interest