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By the mid 19th century, printmaking in general, and etching in particular was not recognized as one of the fine arts. Used primarily fort he purposes of reproduction and illustration, printmating had sunk into disregard, and its practitionars did not the enjoy the same status as “real” artists. It is thanks to James Abbott McNeill Whistler and his brother-in-law Francis Seymour Haden, that the extraordinary potential of etching was rediscovered and exploited tot the full. Art rarely emerges without conscious or subconscious models. In case of the English Etching Revival, this model was …