Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

 

YMSM 172
Nocturne

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1875/1877
Collection: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
Accession Number: GLAHA 46361
Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 55.5 x 39.4 cm (21 7/8 x 15 1/2")
Signature: none
Inscription: none
Frame: partial Flat Whistler, with painted 'seigaha' and partial butterfly

Nocturne

Nocturne has been dated about 1875/1877. 1

It is difficult to date, but the technique – the lack of imprimatura and the lack of paint runs – could argue for an early date. 2

Nocturne, The Hunterian
Nocturne, The Hunterian
Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso, Freer Gallery of Art
Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso, Freer Gallery of Art
Nocturne in Blue and Silver: The Lagoon, Venice, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Nocturne in Blue and Silver: The Lagoon, Venice, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

The composition is comparable to Whistler's Valparaiso nocturnes of 1866, such as Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay [YMSM 076] (which was probably completed in the late 1870s), and the technique of his Venetian Nocturnes of 1879/1880, such as Nocturne in Blue and Silver: The Lagoon,Venice [YMSM 212]. A date in the late 1870s is most likely.

Notes:

1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 172).

2: Professor Joyce H. Townsend, Tate Britain, examination report, August 2017.

Last updated: 2nd November 2020 by Margaret