The Bridge, Santa Marta
1879/80
Medium
Etching and drypoint with foul biting, with drypoint cancellation, in black ink on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 29.6 × 19.9 cm (11 11/16 × 7 7/8 in.); Sheet, sight, bound: 37.7 × 27.5 cm (14 7/8 × 10 7/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
181018
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler created *The Bridge, Santa Marta* during his productive stay in Venice from 1879 to 1880. This etching captures a quiet corner of the city with Whistler’s characteristic sensitivity to light and atmosphere. As one of the leading printmakers of the late nineteenth century, Whistler approached the medium with both technical precision and creative freedom, often reworking plates to achieve subtle tonal effects. The work is executed in etching and drypoint on ivory laid paper, with visible foul biting that adds an accidental, textured quality to the surface. The drypoint ca...
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...