Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Nocturne in grey and gold – Chelsea Fish Shop' (1886, Dowdeswell). 1
• 'Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Fish Shop' (1980, YMSM). 2

'Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Fish Shop' is the preferred form of the title.

Description

The Saturday Review on 22 May 1886 described it as 'a supposed rendering of lights on a foggy night.' The description in the Magazine of Art suggests the colour was basically brown but does not otherwise help to identify it: 'The dark brown fog ... though it ... represents nothing, sounds as it were, the fundamental bass of the chord in a low octave.' 3

Site

Chelsea, London, UK.

Street in Old Chelsea, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Maunder's Fish shop in Chelsea – which could have been the subject – appears in several of Whistler's prints and paintings including Street in Old Chelsea [YMSM 249].