A mounted black line etching in original frame by James McNeill Whistler printed in black ink on ivory laid paper. First published in the "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," in 1881 it depicts Alderney Street in Pimlico. First state of two.

The sparing using of line and sketch-like quality in the image reflects an adherence to the theories of Frances Seymour Hayden, the champion and initiator of the late 19th Century 'Etching Revival', who advocated the use of a "learned omission". According to this theory the fewer lines there were on a plate, "the greater would be the thought and creativity residing in each line". This would later be relevant to the thought of the Impressionist movement.

A copy is kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

‘James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Painter, etcher, lithographer. Born in America, moved to Russia, Paris (1855-59 at Gleyre’s studio); then to London where settled finally in 1863 for rest of life; chief exponent of Aestheticism.’

British Museum