Nocturne, from Venice, a Series of Twelve Etchings (the "First Venice Set")
1879–80
Medium
Etching and drypoint in brown on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image, trimmed within platemark: 20.1 × 29.7 cm (7 15/16 × 11 3/4 in.); Sheet: 20.4 × 29.7 cm (8 1/16 × 11 3/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
109193
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Whistler pursued the abstraction of conventional subjects like portraiture and landscape across a variety of media, including painting, drawing, etching, and lithography. In his etchings, perhaps especially those from his Venice period, he used the selective wiping of printing plates to create atmospheric effects while often obscuring the compositional elements. In this final state of Nocturne, Whistler depicted a wide stretch of water with the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in the distance at r...
About the Artist
James McNeill Whistler · 1834–1903
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was an American-born painter and printmaker who became a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement and pioneer of Tonalism and Japonisme. He revolutionized art by championing "art for art's sake" and treating paintings as visual equivalents of musical compositions, titling works as "arrangements," "harmonies," and "nocturnes" to emphasize formal qualities o...