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

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Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge

Catalogues Raisonnés

  • Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 140), plate 109, as 'Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge'.

Authored by Whistler

  • Whistler, James McNeill, Letter to Editor, The Observer, London, 11 April 1886 (reprinted in Whistler 1892).
  • Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890, pp. 7-8, 10-11, 15, 17, 176.
  • Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, 2nd edition, London and New York, 1892, p. 176.

Catalogues 1855-1905

EXHIBITION:

  • Second Annual Exhibition of Modern Pictures in Oil and Water Colour, Royal Pavilion Gallery, Brighton, 1875 (cat. no. 97) as 'Nocturne in blue and silver'.
  • 12th Exhibition, Society of French Artists, Deschamps Gallery, London, 1876 (cat. no. 147) as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver No. 5'.
  • I Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1877 (cat. no. 6A) as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver'.
  • Exposition Brown, Boudin, Caillebotte, Lepine, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Whistler, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1888 (cat. nos. 39 or 42) as 'Nocturne en bleu et argent'.
  • Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 4) as 'Nocturne Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge'.
  • Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 12; de luxe edition., repr. f.p. 54) as 'Nocturne, Blue and Gold, Old Battersea Bridge'; and 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' (ordinary edition).

SALE:

  • W. Graham sale, Christie's, London, 3 April 1886 (lot 120) as 'A Nocturne in Blue and Silver'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

  • Anon., Brighton Gazette, Brighton, 9 August 1875.
  • Anon., 'The Brighton Exhibition of Paintings', London Evening Standard, London, 11 September 1875, p. 3.
  • Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Action against Mr. Ruskin', Edinburgh Evening News, 26 November 1878, p. 4.
  • Anon., 'Action for Libel against Mr. Ruskin', London Evening Standard, London, 26 November 1878, p. 2.
  • Anon., 'Mr. Whistler and Mr. Ruskin', Pall Mall Gazette, London, 26 November 1878, pp. 6-7.
  • Anon., 'Mr. Whistler and Mr. Ruskin', Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, Leeds, 26 November 1878, p. 8.
  • Anon., 'Whistler v. Ruskin', Daily Telegraph, London, 26-27 November 1878.
  • Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Action for Libel against Mr. Ruskin', Leeds Mercury, Leeds, 27 November 1878, p. 3.
  • Anon., 'The Action against Mr. Ruskin', London Evening Standard, London, 27 November 1878, pp. 2, 4-5.
  • Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Action against Mr. Ruskin', North Briton, 30 November 1878, p. 8.
  • Anon., 'Literature', The Era, 2 March 1879, p. 11.
  • Anon., 'Correspondence – The Graham Sale', The Observer, London, 4 April 1886, p. 6.
  • Anon., [Malcolm Salaman], 'Hissing a Work of Art,' Sunday Times, London, 18 April 1886, p. 2.
  • Anon., 'London Day by Day', Daily Telegraph and Courier, London, 19 March 1892, p. 5.
  • Anon., Pall Mall Budget, London, 31 March 1892, engraving repr. p. 458.
  • Anon., 'Literature', Glasgow Herald, Glasgow, 9 November 1893, pp. 9-11.
  • Anon., 'Art Exhibitions', Daily Telegraph and Courier, London, 14 March 1899, p. 5.

See Merrill, Linda, A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trial in 'Whistler v. Ruskin', Washington and London, 1992, p. 300 etc., for a survey of press reports on the Whistler v. Ruskin trial of 1878.

Journals 1855-1905

  • Anon. [Rossetti, William Michael?], 'Notes and News', The Academy, 19 February 1876, p. 180.
  • [Rossetti, William Michael], 'Forthcoming English Pictures', The Art Monthly Review and Photographic Portfolio, 29 February 1876, no. 2, p. 15, at p. 15.
  • Wilde, Oscar, 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Dublin University Magazine, vol. 90, no. 535, July 1877, pp. 118-26, at p. 124.
  • Brownell, William C., 'Whistler in Painting and Etching', Scribner's Monthly, vol. 18, no. 4, August 1879, pp. 481-95.
  • Child, Theodore, 'American Artists at the Paris Exhibition', Harper's New Monthly Magazine, American edition, vol. 79, September 1889, pp. 489-521, engraving repr. p. 494 as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver – Fragment of Old Battersea Bridge'.
  • Sickert, Walter Richard, 'Whistler To-day', The Fortnightly Review, vol. 57, new series, vol. 51, April 1892, pp. 543-47, at p. 547.

Monographs

  • None.

Books on Whistler

  • Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907 (cat. no. 374).
  • Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces, New York, 2004, pp. 25-26, 208-209, 414 n.89.
  • Fleming, Gordon, The Young Whistler 1834-66, London, Boston, Sydney, 1978, p. 194.
  • Getscher, Robert H., and Paul G. Marks, James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Two Annotated Bibliographies, New York and London, 1986, A.3, p. 1.
  • Merrill, Linda, A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trial in 'Whistler v. Ruskin', Washington and London, 1992, pp. 5, 36-37, 102, 108, 110, 127, 143-44, 146, 148-51, 155, 158-60, 166-67, 169, 173, 177, 186, 225-26, 232, 238-40, 324 note 9.
  • Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 159-60, 212, 234, 236, 239, 240, 287, repr. f.p. 166; vol. 2, p. 59.
  • Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, pp. 120, 137-39.
  • Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, pp. 250, 272-73, 281, 283-84, 310, 382, 450, 636, 653, 655.
  • Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 46).
  • Spencer, Robin (ed.), Whistler: A Retrospective, New York, 1989, pp. 84, 129-33, 139 repr., 148-49, 279.
  • Spencer, Robin, Whistler, New York, 1990, pp. 82-83.
  • Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, p. 158.
  • Taylor, Hilary, James McNeill Whistler, London, 1978, p. 69.

Books, General

  • Cook, E. T., and Alexander Wedderburn (eds), The Works of John Ruskin, 39 vols., London, 1903-1912, vol. 29, pp. xxii-xxiii, 160, 580-87.
  • Moore, George, Modern Painting, London, 1893, p. 23.
  • Prettejohn, Elizabeth, Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 177, 179, 183, 186-87.
  • Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, pp. 90-95.
  • Wilson, Simon, Tate Gallery: An Illustrated Companion, Tate Gallery, London, revised edition 1991, p. 100.

Catalogues 1906-Present

  • Loan Collection of Works by James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, 1912 (cat. no. 30).
  • American Painting, Tate Gallery, London 1946 (cat. no. 229).
  • Sweet, Frederick A. (ed.), Sargent, Whistler and Mary Cassatt, Art Institute of Chicago and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1954 (cat. no. 99).
  • Masters of British Painting, New York, St Louis and San Francisco, 1956-1957 (cat. no. 119).
  • Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 35).
  • MacDonald, Margaret F., Whistler. The Graphic Work: Amsterdam, Liverpool, London, Venice, Agnew and Sons, London; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; City Art Gallery, Glasgow, 1976 (cat. no. 236 (not exhibited).
  • Simpson, Marc, 'Whistler, Modernism, and the Creative Afflatus', in Simpson, Marc, Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 2008, pp. 24-51, at 35-36, repr. fig. 13 (not exhibited).
  • Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, p. 67, repr. fig. 56 (not exhibited).
  • Lochnan, Katharine, Turner, Whistler, Monet, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Tate Britain, London, 2004-2005 (cat. no. 47), repr. p. 155.
  • Andreeva, Galina, and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006, pp. 17-19, 183 (cat. no. 12), repr. p. 19.
  • Simpson, Marc, 'Whistler, Modernism, and the Creative Afflatus', in Simpson, Marc, Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 2008, pp. 24-51, at 36-37, repr. p. 36.
  • Calloway, Stephen, and Lynn Federle Orr (eds), The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2011 (no catalogue number).
  • MacDonald, Margaret, 'Whistler and the Thames', in MacDonald, Margaret, and Patricia de Montfort, An American in London: Whistler and the Thames, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Addison Gallery of American Art, Freer Gallery of Art, 2013-2014, pp. 24-29, 42-43, 46-49, 133 (cat. no. 79).
  • Ayako Ono, ホイッスラー展. James McNeill Whistler Retrospective, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyōto, 2014, and Yokohama Museum of Art, 2014–2015 (cat. no. 118).
  • Schaefer, Barbara, and Anita Hachmann (eds.), Es war einmal in Amerika. Dreihundert Jahre US-amerikanische Kunst, exhibition catalogue, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 2018 (cat. no. 62), pp. 394-95, repr.

Journals 1906-Present

  • National Art-Collections Fund, 1906, repr. p. 10.
  • Pennell, E. R. and J., 'Whistler as Decorator', Century Magazine, vol. 83, February 1912, pp. 500-13, repr. p. 505 in frame.

Websites

  • Fowle, Frances, Tate Britain, London, 2000 website at http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks.

Unpublished

  • Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 74) 'Nocturne in blue and silver / Nocturne, blue and gold: Old Battersea Bridge'.

Other

  • Bell, Lynne, Fact and Fiction: James McNeill Whistler's Critical Reputation in England, 1880-1892, PhD thesis, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 1987.
  • Goebel, Catherine Carter, Arrangement in Black and White: the Making of a Whistler Legend, PhD thesis, 2 vols, Evanston, Northwestern University, 1988.
  • Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.

Last updated: 8th June 2021 by Margaret