Provenance

Unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1872: 6th Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil, Dudley Gallery, London, 1872 (no. 237) as 'Nocturne, in Blue and Silver'.

The exhibition at the Dudley Gallery included two Nocturnes, 'Nocturne in Grey and Gold' (cat. no. 187), which can be identified as Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water [YMSM 117], and 'Nocturne, in Blue and Silver' (cat. no. 237). These were the first paintings that Whistler exhibited under the title of 'Nocturnes'. The terminology was suggested by his patron F. R. Leyland and Whistler wrote to thank him:

'I say I can't thank you too much for the name "Nocturne" as a title for my moonlights! You have no idea what an irritation it proves to the critics and consequent pleasure to me - besides it is really so charming and does so poetically say all I want to say and no more than I wish. The pictures at the Dudley are a great success.' 1

The critic for the Art Journal was not so impressed:

'… it is probable that the artist is trying to what extent the public will tolerate eccentricity in Art. There is an unpardonable affectation in these names, and the productions themselves are such as never before have been seen in any exhibition. Mr. Whistler is, we believe, an American, and a adherent of what is called the new French school.' 2

For the most part, the reviews did not describe the paintings, making the most of the observed vagueness and ambiguity of the Nocturnes. The obscurity of the subject also seems to have provoked some critics, as in the Saturday Review:

' “A Nocturne in Blue and Silver” (237)) is an imposing title, yet it might admit of easy parody – “a nocturne in a washtub.” This ghost of a picture, in fact, would serve for anything or for nothing.' 3

Other reviews condemned the Nocturnes in similar words:

'Whether in the extravagance of those formless smudges dignified by Mr. J. A. McNeill Whistler with the musical designations of "symphony" and "nocturne," the painter is serious, or is having a joke with his professed admirers, we are quite at a loss to guess. The first of Mr. Whistler's exercitations in special harmony is (37) "Symphony in Grey and Green — the Ocean;" and what to say of it we really do not know, except that it seems but a single degree less sane than (187) "Nocturne in Grey and Gold," or (237) "Nocturne in Blue and silver." ' 4

The Athenaeum wrote about the exhibition:

'A Nocturne in Grey and Gold (187) and Nocturne in Blue and Silver (237) form what people call "a pair," and represent the same part of the Thames under very different effects of light. … The "Nocturne in Blue and Silver" deals with a subject-effect, such is the right term, which is far more frequently seen than that treated in its fellow picture. Moonlight at full suffuses a world of mist on the river, so that the whole has an ineffable charm. It is broad, soft, delicate, and wonderful: so mysteriously wealthy in tints, that its richness is not fully suspected until the observer selects a portion of the canvas and endeavours to analyze the execution, and, in short, tries to discover the means by which the charm has been worked.' 5

The Builder, discussing both paintings, wondered 'that such a pretty pale blue or pale-grey fog could necessitate the lighting up of the moon and other lamps … how the small craft so near should be merged in mist, and yet that a forest of masts should be more visible miles away.' 6

The Observer observed that Whistler's frames were decorated:

'Mr. Whistler sends three frames, upon which he paints rather more than upon the canvas enclosed within them, and he repeats a well-worn pleasantry, founded on the analogy of colour and music, calling one picture a symphony, and each of the others a nocturne. They are out of place here, but would have some value in a museum of decorative art.' 7