Nocturne (Nocturne: The Thames at Battersea), 1878, Lithotint with scraping, on a prepared half-tint ground, second state of two (Chicago), printed in soft gray-black ink on pale blue laid chine mounted on ivory wove plate paper, Image: 6 3/4 ? 10 3/16 in. (17. 1 ? 25. 9 cm), Prints, James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834?1903 London), Born in New England, Whistler studied painting in Paris and then based himself in London. There he demonstrated that making prints could be as serious an artistic pursuit as painting. Representing the river Thames, then the lagoons of Venice, Whistler developed subtle tonal variations that alluded dreamily to a triumph of water and air over substance