Herman Webster, the American expatriate artist, continued his tour of The Continent in 1926 after recovering his eyesight, producing prints that display grand, theatrical staging and composition, such as this view of a nighttime religious celebration, probably in Venice. The original print uses black ink on a green paper ground - an unhappy and infelicitous choice. The reproduction print uses a graduated sepia ink blend on a white paper ground to unlock the image's contrast and sense of drama.

Webster's scenes are always crowded - he considers the physical construct of the city as inseparable from its citizens - one derives aesthetic meaning only in terms of the other, and he calls forth a mighty host for this print. The ritualistic grouping of the celebrants suggests the season of Lent, and its precedent Carnival, with its brilliant masks, costumes, and elegant debaucheries.

Webster's people are less figures than icons, not studied renderings, but instead impressions; and he sketches them with a gestural facility that lends his work of this period a rich and tactile sensuality. Of all the expatriate Americans, Webster's work most closely resembles that of John Singer Sargent, America's greatest expatriate artist.