James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Black Lion Wharf
Etched 1859, printed and published 1871

Etching (Kennedy 42, State III, as published in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames, 1871)
Museum no. CAI 147
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Black Lion Wharf, the most famous of the 'Thames Set', was one of Whistler's personal favourites; a framed impression of it appears in the background of his celebrated portrait of his mother. It later attracted many imitators. The minute and crisp delineation of the wharf buildings inspired the prints made by Graham Sutherland and other young etchers in the late 1920s.