James McNeill Whistler 1834-1903

Set on the north bank of the Thames near St Katharine’s Dock, Black Lion Wharf is perhaps Whistler's most famous etching, due in part to its inclusion as a framed work on the wall in his painting Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother. Unlike many of his other Thames subjects, this plate was drawn in reverse so that the resulting print displays the wharves and warehouses in their correct topographical orientation. The composition is anchored by a young, bearded longshoreman in the foreground, whose figure is silhouetted against the unworked, white space of the water. Whistler uses a high horizon line, alternating between areas of intense detail and blank voids to lead the eye through the crowded urban landscape. The neatly lettered signs throughout the image provide structure to the seemingly chaotic riverside environment.