The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

A 'Nocturne, in Blue and Silver' was exhibited in the 6th Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil, Dudley Gallery, London, 1872 (cat. no. 237). ¹

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title is known:

• 'Nocturne, in Blue and Silver' (1872, Dudley). ²

Description

A dark land-, sea- or river-scape with fog and water. Contemporary reviews do not offer conclusive observations that would allow us to identify the 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver'.

Nocturne: The Solent, Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art

Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Cremorne Lights, Tate Britain

Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water, Art Institute Of Chicago

Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach, Freer Gallery of Art

Three possible candidates are Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights y115, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach y119, and Nocturne: The Solent y071. All three would have made a good pair with Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water y117. Nocturne: The Solent y071 shows a location not far from Southampton, which is the site of Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water y117.

However, both Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights y115 and Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach y119 match Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water y117 almost exactly in size. If The Illustrated London News is correct in its identification of the site as 'the Thames at Battersea', these two Nocturnes may be the better candidates. ³

From a distance, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights y115 and Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water y117 show a strikingly similar composition, which would explain one critic's impression that the two Nocturnes exhibited at 6th Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil, Dudley Gallery, London, 1872 'represent the same part of the Thames under very different effects of light.' ⁴

Site

It probably showed the river Thames in London. The Illustrated London News described the site as 'the Thames at Battersea'. ⁵

Technique

Technique

One of the few reviews offering technical observations can be found in The Echo:

'The process of painting one of these pictures seems, at first sight, to be a simple one enough. One or two broad sweeps of monotint cover the canvas from end to end, certain small streaks of light and dark paint being touched on here and there, apparently at random. The pictures of which the component parts are so few and simple, are placed in frames which are ordinarily decorated with little crescent-shaped lines of colour resembling the pervading tint of the picture, and which are further embellished with a small ornament still of the same hue, and, perhaps, intended for a moth or a dragon-fly, at the side. Something like this appears to be the process by which is turned out one of the works which Mr. Whistler, in pursuance of his eccentric policy, describes in the catalogue as a Symphony or Nocturne, or by some other application more usually applied to musical pieces than to works of pictorial art.' ⁶

History

Provenance

Unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1872: 6th Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil, Dudley Gallery, London, 1872 (no. 237) as 'Nocturne, in Blue and Silver'.

The exhibition at the Dudley Gallery included two Nocturnes, 'Nocturne in Grey and Gold' (cat. no. 187), which can be identified as Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water y117, and 'Nocturne, in Blue and Silver' (cat. no. 237). These were the first paintings that Whistler exhibited under the title of 'Nocturnes'. The terminology was suggested by his patron F. R. Leyland and Whistler wrote to thank him:

'I say I can't thank you too much for the name "Nocturne" as a title for my moonlights! You have no idea what an irritation it proves to the critics and consequent pleasure to me - besides it is really so charming and does so poetically say all I want to say and no more than I wish. The pictures at the Dudley are a great success.' ⁷

The critic for the Art Journal was not so impressed:

'… it is probable that the artist is trying to what extent the public will tolerate eccentricity in Art. There is an unpardonable affectation in these names, and the productions themselves are such as never before have been seen in any exhibition. Mr. Whistler is, we believe, an American, and a adherent of what is called the new French school.' ⁸

For the most part, the reviews did not describe the paintings, making the most of the observed vagueness and ambiguity of the Nocturnes. The obscurity of the subject also seems to have provoked some critics, as in the Saturday Review:

' “A Nocturne in Blue and Silver” (237)) is an imposing title, yet it might admit of easy parody – “a nocturne in a washtub.” This ghost of a picture, in fact, would serve for anything or for nothing.' ⁹

Other reviews condemned the Nocturnes in similar words:

'Whether in the extravagance of those formless smudges dignified by Mr. J. A. McNeill Whistler with the musical designations of "symphony" and "nocturne," the painter is serious, or is having a joke with his professed admirers, we are quite at a loss to guess. The first of Mr. Whistler's exercitations in special harmony is (37) "Symphony in Grey and Green — the Ocean;" and what to say of it we really do not know, except that it seems but a single degree less sane than (187) "Nocturne in Grey and Gold," or (237) "Nocturne in Blue and silver." ' ¹⁰

The Athenaeum wrote about the exhibition:

'A Nocturne in Grey and Gold (187) and Nocturne in Blue and Silver (237) form what people call "a pair," and represent the same part of the Thames under very different effects of light. … The "Nocturne in Blue and Silver" deals with a subject-effect, such is the right term, which is far more frequently seen than that treated in its fellow picture. Moonlight at full suffuses a world of mist on the river, so that the whole has an ineffable charm. It is broad, soft, delicate, and wonderful: so mysteriously wealthy in tints, that its richness is not fully suspected until the observer selects a portion of the canvas and endeavours to analyze the execution, and, in short, tries to discover the means by which the charm has been worked.' ¹¹

The Builder, discussing both paintings, wondered 'that such a pretty pale blue or pale-grey fog could necessitate the lighting up of the moon and other lamps … how the small craft so near should be merged in mist, and yet that a forest of masts should be more visible miles away.' ¹²

The Observer observed that Whistler's frames were decorated:

'Mr. Whistler sends three frames, upon which he paints rather more than upon the canvas enclosed within them, and he repeats a well-worn pleasantry, founded on the analogy of colour and music, calling one picture a symphony, and each of the others a nocturne. They are out of place here, but would have some value in a museum of decorative art.' ¹³

Bibliography

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. 118) as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 6th Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil, Dudley Gallery, London, 1872 (no. 237) as 'Nocturne, in Blue and Silver' (cat. untraced).

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The Winter Exhibitions: The Dudley Gallery – Cabinet Pictures in Oil', Observer, London, 27 October 1872, p. 6.
• Anon., 'Winter Exhibitions', Daily Telegraph, London, 31 October 1872, p. 5.
• Anon., 'Fine Arts: Winter Exhibition at the Dudley Gallery', The Illustrated London News, London, 2 November 1872, p. 419.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The Dudley Gallery', The Echo, 26 October 1872, p. 2.
• Anon., 'The Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures in Oil, Dudley Gallery', The Athenaeum, 2 November 1872, pp. 568-69.
• Anon., 'Winter Exhibitions', The Saturday Review, vol. 34, 9 November 1872, pp. 600-01.
• Anon., 'Winter Exhibition at the Dudley Gallery', The Builder, vol. 30, 23 November 1872, pp. 629-30, at p. 629.
• 'The Dudley Gallery, Egyptian Hall', The Art Journal, December 1872, p. 309.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.