The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Nocturne in grey and gold – Piccadilly dates from 1881/1883, and was first exhibited in 1884.

Nocturne in grey and gold – Piccadilly, National Gallery of Ireland

Fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 862).

Images

Subject

Site

Nocturne in grey and gold – Piccadilly, National Gallery of Ireland

Piccadilly Circus, London.

Technique

Technique

Nocturne in grey and gold – Piccadilly, National Gallery of Ireland

See discussion in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 862).

History

Provenance

• 1884: bought from Whistler by Jonathan Hogg (1847-1930), Dublin;
• 1930: bequeathed to the National Gallery of Ireland.

Exhibitions

• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 9) as 'Nocturne in grey and gold – Piccadilly'.
• 1884: Annual Exhibition of Sketches, Pictures & Photography: A Loan Collection of Pictures by Mr Whistler ..., Dublin Sketching Club, Dublin, 1884 (cat. no. 251) as 'Grey and Gold: Piccadilly'.
• 1888: Exhibition of Paintings, British Dental Association, Dublin, 1888 (cat. no. 11) as 'Piccadilly'.
• 1899: A Loan Collection of Modern Paintings, Leinster Hall, Dublin, 1899 (cat. no. 82a) as 'Piccadilly'.
• 1904: Pictures presented to the City of Dublin to form the Nucleus of a Gallery of Modern Art, also pictures lent by the executors of the late James Staats Forbes and others, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1904 (cat. no. 254) as 'Piccadilly'.

It received mixed but mostly favourable reviews in, for instance, the Standard, 19 May 1884; Daily News, 21 May 1884; Topical Times, 24 May 1884; and the Kensington News, 29 May 1884, and later that year, in the Dublin Daily Express, 1 December 1884; furthermore, the Irish Times, 22 August 1888, found it 'quite characteristic and astounding almost.'

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 862) as 'Nocturne in grey and gold – Piccadilly'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 9) as 'Nocturne in grey and gold – Piccadilly'.
• Annual Exhibition of Sketches, Pictures & Photography: A Loan Collection of Pictures by Mr Whistler ..., Dublin Sketching Club, Dublin, 1884 (cat. no. 251) as 'Grey and Gold: Piccadilly'.
• Exhibition of Paintings, British Dental Association, Dublin, 1888 (cat. no. 11) as 'Piccadilly'.
• A Loan Collection of Modern Paintings, Leinster Hall, Dublin, 1899 (cat. no. 82a) as 'Piccadilly'.
• Pictures presented to the City of Dublin to form the Nucleus of a Gallery of Modern Art, also pictures lent by the executors of the late James Staats Forbes and others, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1904 (cat. no. 254) as 'Piccadilly'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Exhibition', The Standard, London, 19 May 1884, p. 2.
• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Gallery', Daily News, London, 21 May 1884, p. 7.
• Anon., Society, London, 22 May 1884.
• Anon, ['Cigarette'], 'Whistles', The Topical Times, 24 May 1884.
• 'M.C.S.' [Malcolm Charles Salaman], Kensington News, London, 29 May 1884.
• Anon., 'The Private View at the Dublin Sketching Club', Dublin Daily Express, Dublin, 1 December 1884, p. 5.
• Anon., 'British Dental Association', The Irish Times, Dublin, 22 August 1888, p. 5.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Whistler. The Graphic Work: Amsterdam, Liverpool, London, Venice, Agnew and Sons, London; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; City Art Gallery, Glasgow, 1976.
• Master European Drawings, from the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Centre, Colorado; Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; The Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minnesota; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1983.
• Dempsey, Andrew (ed.) with Wendy Baron, Margaret MacDonald, Casilda Mora, James McNeill Whistler, Walter Richard Sickert, Fundacion "La Caixa", Madrid, and Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1998.
• Shades of Grey: Painting without Colour, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 2013.
• James McNeill Whistler, Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art 2014, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, 2014.

Websites

• National Gallery of Ireland website at http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects.