Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• Probably 'Nocturne - [Cremorne] Dancing' (1886/1887, Whistler). 1
• Nocturne in Green & Gold' (1880s, possibly Whistler) 2
• 'Nocturne in Green and Gold, The Falling Rocket' (1905, ISSPG). 3
• 'Cremorne (Nocturne in Green and Gold)' (1908, Pennell). 4
• 'Nocturne in Green and Gold: Cremorne Gardens, London, at Night No. 4' (1966, Sutton). 5
• 'Nocturne in Green and Gold, Cremorne Gardens, London at Night' (1974, New York Cultural Center et al.). 6
• 'Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Gardens' (1980, YMSM).
• 'Nocturne in Green and Gold' (2018, Metropolitan Museum of Art). 7

Pennell's title originated with the 1905 exhibition catalogue, which stated that an inscription on the back in Whistler's writing read 'Nocturne in Green and Gold' and that the picture was exhibited at the Whistler-Ruskin trial in 1878. B. Sickert pointed out that this was inaccurate, but as is clear from the titles listed above, this title persisted, with variations. 8 The preferred title is 'Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Gardens'.

Description

A very dark landscape, in horizontal format, with figures wandering across the gardens. At left there are figures dancing on a platform, at right, the corner of a two-storey building, described by E. L. Cary in 1907 as an 'illuminated kiosk … waiters in red coats are here and there in the foreground'. 9

Site

This is one of six nocturnal paintings of the pleasure gardens, Cremorne Gardens in Chelsea, London.

Cremorne pleasure gardens closed to the public in 1877. Whistler's paintings of Cremorne include Cremorne, No. 1 [YMSM 163], Cremorne Gardens, No. 2 [YMSM 164], Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3 [YMSM 165], Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Gardens [YMSM 166], Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel [YMSM 169], and Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket [YMSM 170].