Composition

Robert Carrick, after Turner's 'Rockets and blue lights (close at hand) to warn steam-boats of shoal water', chromolithograph, British Museum 1861,0608.155

Copy after Turner's 'Rockets and blue lights (close at hand) to warn steam-boats of shoal water', private collection

Whistler's copy was from Robert Carrick's print, not the original oil by Turner.

The original oil by Joseph Mallard William Turner (1775-1851), is now in a rather ghostly condition in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. Robert Carrick's chromolithograph of 1852 was the source for Whistler's detailed copy.

Technique

Copy after Turner's 'Rockets and blue lights (close at hand) to warn steam-boats of shoal water', detail

Copy after Turner's 'Rockets and blue lights (close at hand) to warn steam-boats of shoal water', detail

Copy after Turner's 'Rockets and blue lights (close at hand) to warn steam-boats of shoal water', detail

Copy after Turner's 'Rockets and blue lights (close at hand) to warn steam-boats of shoal water', detail

Originally assumed to be an oil, this is definitely a watercolour, copied from an 1852 chromolithograph after Turner by Robert Carrick. It is skilful, using a range of techniques including broad washes, precise brushwork details, body colour highlights, and scraping.

See discussion in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 3).