James McNeill Whistler

The Thames

Date 1896
Materials Lithostone
Dimensions
Marks Signed in stone with butterfly at lower right
Further information Harriet Stratis and Martha Tedeschi (eds), The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, Volume 1: A Catalogue Raisonne, Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 1998 (161).

Note This lithostone was the stone on which Whistler drew the lithotint The Thames. Having rendered the scene using a diluted wash of greasy paint, the stone was then covered with ink. The ink would have clung to the image created by the greasy paint but have been repelled from the rest of the stone. An image was then transferred on to paper.

The image on the stone is the reverse of the image on paper, so Charing Cross bridge can be seen on the right, not the left of the picture. When the artist makes a lithograph or lithotint he/she has to remember that whatever is drawn onto the stone will be reversed on paper, so any writing, for example street or shop signs, have to be drawn back to front. Whistler sometimes used a technique called transfer lithography to get around this problem. This involved drawing first on paper and then transferring the image to stone, and so reversing the initial image before printing.