Titles

Several possible titles, all featuring the site, 'Chelsea', have been suggested:

• 'Chelsea Reach – Harmony in Grey' (1875, Society of French Artists). 1
• 'Chelsea Barges' (1892, Whistler). 2
• 'Grey and Silver. Chelsea Wharf' (1892, Goupil). 3
• 'Grey note – Thames' (1894, Whistler). 4
• 'a small grey Chelsea' or 'Grey Note' (1895, Whistler). 5
• 'Shipping on the Thames' and 'Grey and Silver, Chelsea Wharf' (1905, ISSPG). 6
• 'Grey and Silver: Chelsea Wharf' (1980, YMSM). 7

'Grey and Silver: Chelsea Wharf', based on the 1892 catalogue, is the generally accepted title.

Description

A river view, in vertical format. Several figures walk on a road, or lean on a wall by the water, in the foreground. Barges with red sails are moored by jetties at right. On the far side of the river are warehouses or factories with tall chimneys, and possibly a spoil heap, towards the left.

Site

The view of Battersea Reach, on the river Thames, London, from Whistler's house in what is now Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, as seen in many of Whistler's paintings of the 1860s and 1870s (Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach [YMSM 046], Chelsea in Ice [YMSM 053], Grey and Silver: Chelsea Wharf , Battersea Reach from Lindsey Houses [YMSM 055], Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony [YMSM 056], Sketch for 'The Balcony' [YMSM 057], and Study of Draped Figures [YMSM 058]), as well as in later Nocturnes such as Nocturne in Blue and Silver [YMSM 113], Nocturne [YMSM 114], and Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach [YMSM 119], and Nocturne: Battersea [YMSM 120].