Titles
Several titles have been suggested:
- 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' (1877, Grosvenor). 1
- 'Nocturne - Blue & Silver' (1886/1887, Whistler). 2
- 'Nocturne Blue & Silver. Battersea Reach' (1892, Whistler). 3
- 'Blue & Silver ... Battersea Reach' (1892, Whistler). 4
- 'Nocturne. Blue and Silver' (1892, Goupil). 5
- 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver, No. I' (1908, Pennell). 6
- 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' (1980, YMSM). 7
'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' is the preferred title.
Description
Nocturne in Blue and Silver, Fogg Art Museum
An evening scene in horizontal format, showing the view across a broad river. The river recedes into the distance at upper right. In the distance are warehouses, factory chimneys and spoil heaps, and one church spire. In the lower right foreground are a few green leaves.
Site
Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach, Art Institute of Chicago
Nocturne in Blue and Silver, Fogg Art Museum
The River Thames in London, showing the Battersea shore from Lindsey Row in Chelsea, and including the slag heap of the plumbago works and the spire of Battersea Church, as seen in several other oils including, for instance, Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach [YMSM 046].
Comments
Harvard Art Museums website comments:
'An American living in Britain, Whistler was among the most progressive artists in the West in the late nineteenth century. He believed that works of art should function as musical compositions, through evocation and suggestion rather than description. With its muted, blue-gray tones and diluted paints, Nocturne in Blue and Silver exemplifies the artist’s radically reductive style. Though the painting depicts an industrial section of the Thames, it is less a record of a place than an exploration of atmosphere, color, and tone.' 8
Notes:
1: I Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1877 (cat. no. 5).
2: List, [1886/1887], formerly dated [4/11 January 1892], GUW #06795.
3: Whistler to D. C. Thomson, [4 January 1892], GUW #08214.
4: Whistler to D. C. Thomson, [8 February 1892], GUW #05682.
5: Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 9).
6: Pennell 1908 [more] , vol. 1, repr. p. 236.
7: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 113).
8: Harvard Art Museums website at http://www.harvardartmuseums.org.
Last updated: 13th May 2021 by Margaret
