Composition

This drawing, done from memory, formed the basis for an oil painting, according to Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913). 1 The painting has not been located, but may have resembled Nocturne: Black and Gold - Rag Shop, Chelsea [YMSM 204].

Technique

According to T. R. Way,

'We had left the studio when it was quite dusk, and were walking along the road by the garden of Chelsea Hospital, when he suddenly stopped, and pointing to a group of buildings in the distance, an old public-house at the corner of a road, with windows and shops showing golden lights through the gathering mist of twilight, said, "Look!" As he did not seem to have anything to sketch or make notes on, I offered him my note-book; "No, no, be quiet," was the answer; and after a long pause he turned and walked back a few yards; then, with his back to the scene at which I was looking, he said, "Now, see if I have learned it," and repeated a full description of the scene.' 2