The Doorway

http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk/whistler.html

In 1879 Whistler was commissioned by the Fine Art Society to make a set of etchings of Venice. This is a printmaking technique in which acid is used to bite lines in a metal plate. These lines are next filled with ink, which is then printed on to paper.(http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O124326/print-the-doorway-venice-a-series/)

Etched on one of the largest ‘Hughes & Kimber’ plates that Whistler took with him from London to Venice, this view of the Palazzo Gussoni was drawn from a boat on the Rio de la Fava, east of the Rialto. A chair-repairer’s stock of chairs hangs above the interior. In successive states the artist changed the figure leaning over the water. In this rich impression of the penultimate state, he used inks of two different consistencies and colours to distinguish pictorial elements: a crisper, stiffer black ink for the architectural details, and a softer brown ink for the dimly-lit interior and the water. Apart from a few etched marks and striations made with a spiked roulette, the reflection in the canal is achieved entirely by Whistler manipulating the ink on the surface of the plate at the printing stage, making each impression unique.(http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/whistler/veniceset.html)