James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903 )Nocturne: the River at Battersea. 1878. Lithograph ("lithotint"). 257 x 170. Way 5; Levy 11. Very nice and fresh proof on bluish chine applied on strong white vellum. Remainder of mounting tab at left edge on verso. All margins [423 x 293]. Pl. published in Art Notes. Ex-coll. P. Prouté (Lugt 2103c). The invention of the lithographic technique of "lithotint" is due to the English engraver Charles Joseph Hullmandel. He described it in the November 27, 1841 issue of The Spectator as a variation in which the artist paints the drawing on his stone with lithographic ink, instead of using the much more time-consuming and less removed lithographic pencil or classical pen-and-ink drawing on stone: "Instead of Indian ink, [the artist] dips his pencil in lithographic ink, laying the tints on stone instead of on paper; and by this simple change of materials, his first thoughts become capable of reproduction more than a thousandfold. [...] lithography was only adapted to crayon or pen-drawing, the two slowest methods of art, and very rarely practiced by English artists of eminence. The painter had no means of reproducing a sepia drawing in which his own touch is preserved, until the invention of lithotint." The freedom and atmospheric rendering of the process could not fail to seduce Whistler.