Whistler’s late etching style was first developed in the mid-1880s on the streets in Chelsea, where he lived at a series of addresses until leaving London for Paris in 1892. Many of the prints show shop fronts and facades, with figures silhouetted in doorways and arches, recalling the figure subjects among Whistler’s Venice etchings.
Whistler also ventured further afield, especially to the used clothing district around Houndsditch in the East End of London. He occasionally referred to the group of prints he made in the East End at this time as his ‘East London Set’, although they were never formally published as such.
