Provenance

• Unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1878: II Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1878 (cat. no. 56) as 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold'.

In 1878 the Sheffield Independent commented on Whistler's 'half-dozen pictures like plates of smoked glass.' 1 The 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold' was described cursorily by the art critic of The Times, 2 May 1878, as a view 'of the river in fog', and marginally more appreciatively by another journalist as 'the luminous darkness of a moonlit night.' 2

It was described more fully in the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 14 May 1878:

' "Nocturne in Blue and Gold" is evidently the entrance to a harbour; there can be very little doubt of the fact, as there is a distinct suggestion of lights on a sort of pier or wharf, and one sail which sticks up in a dejected sort of way shows conclusively that the artist is treating a river or sea scene.'

This description is not precise enough to confirm the identity of the work exhibited. It could fit Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach [YMSM 119] or Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water [YMSM 179] but the latter was exhibited at the Grosvenor some years later so it is an unlikely candidate.

Other paintings, whose history is not complete, or which are known to have had complaisant owners and are therefore possible candidates for the 1878 exhibition, include Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water [YMSM 117] and Nocturne in Blue and Gold [YMSM 141]. In addition others could have been exhibited occasionally under this title, and have been available in 1878.