Nocturne, from Venice, a Series of Twelve Etchings (the "First Venice Set")

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 right and the domed roofline of Santa Maria della Salute at left. As in all printmaking processes, the image is reversed from how it was drawn on the plate. Whistler would have observed this view from the Riva degli Schiavoni.