During his formative years in Paris in the 1850s, Whistler was influenced by the injunctions of the poet and theorist Charles Baudelaire that artists should take subjects from 'modern life' and seek a new beauty in the teeming cities. Whistler's first major suite of prints, his 'French Set' brought critical acclaim but disappointing sales. Seeking more generous patrons, he moved to London in 1859. Initially under the influence of his brother-in-law Francis Seymour Haden, a pioneer of the 'etching revival', he began a series of superbly observed and finely detailed views of the River Thames with its shipping, thriving wharves and picturesque characters.

'Black Lion Wharf', the most famous of Whistler's Thames Set subjects, was one of his personal favourites; a framed impression of it appears in the background of his celebrated Portrait of Whistler's mother. It attracted many imitators. The minute and crisp delineation of bricks and old woodwork of the wharf buildings inspired the romantic prints made by Graham Sutherland and other young etchers in the late 1920s.