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

 

YMSM 204
Nocturne: Black and Gold – Rag Shop, Chelsea

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1881/1884
Collection: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Accession Number: 1943.173
Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 36.2 x 50.8 cm (14 1/4 x 20")
Signature: none
Inscription: none
Frame: Flat Whistler-style, ca 1930, American, M. Grieve [13.3 cm]

Nocturne: Black and Gold – Rag Shop, Chelsea

Composition

Nocturne: Black and Gold – Rag Shop, Chelsea, Fogg Art Museum
Nocturne: Black and Gold – Rag Shop, Chelsea, Fogg Art Museum

Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) recalls a night about 1881 when Whistler made a drawing which is similar in subject to Nocturne: Black and Gold - Rag Shop, Chelsea [YMSM 204] (see Nocturne: Chelsea [YMSM 235]). 1

Nocturne: Chelsea, The Hunterian
Nocturne: Chelsea, The Hunterian

A pen drawing, Nocturne: Chelsea [M.0860] also appears to be a memory sketch of a similar subject.

Technique

Nocturne: Black and Gold – Rag Shop, Chelsea, Fogg Art Museum
Nocturne: Black and Gold – Rag Shop, Chelsea, Fogg Art Museum

It is painted on a fine canvas of irregular weave. The golden details of the lit interior of the shop are painted in creamy strokes with a small 2 mm (1/16") round brush.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

1884: the style and whereabouts of the original frame is unknown.

1899: it is possible that it was reframed for exhibition and sale, but if so, the style and whereabouts of this second frame are unknown.

Nocturne: Black and Gold – Rag Shop, Chelsea, Fogg Art Museum
Nocturne: Black and Gold – Rag Shop, Chelsea, Fogg Art Museum

1930: Flat Whistler-style frame, 63.8 x 78.1 x 6.4 cm (25 1/8 x 30 3/4 x 2 1/2"), made by M. Grieve. This was probably added when it was with Scott & Fowles, New York.

Notes:

1: Way 1912 [more] , pp. 67-68, repr. drawing f.p. 68.

Last updated: 31st December 2020 by Margaret