Details

Title

Nocturne: Palaces

Artist/Maker

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903)

Date

1879–1880

Medium

Etching and drypoint on paper

Dimensions

11 5/8 x 7 13/16 inches

Credit

Purchase with funds from the Estate of Barbara Dunbar Stewart, the Margaret and Terry Stent Endowment for the Acquisition of American Art, Friends of American Art, Victoria and Howard Palefsky and Joan N. Whitcomb

Accession #

2012.51

Location

Currently not on view

In 1879, James Whistler accepted a three-month commission for a series of twelve etched views of Venice; he stayed fourteen months and created fifty etched compositions. Etched, hand inked, and printed by Whistler, each impression in this series is considered a monotype—a unique print handled and approved by the artist himself. Whistler’s fingerprints can be seen in the upper right quadrant of this impression. His elegant, spare aesthetic influenced many American artists, including Thomas Wilmer Dewing and John Twachtman, to adopt an aesthetic approach.

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