The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge probably dates from between 1872 and 1875. ¹

It may have been a 'Nocturne in blue and silver' shown in Brighton in 1875, but this is not certain. In February 1876, Whistler was reported as having 'lately completed three interesting studies of landscape', one of which was almost certainly Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, which was described as:

'moonlight on the river ... In the foreground the dark forms of the pier and parapet of the bridge break across the scene and throw it into a fairy-like distance, while from beneath the bridge a barge drifts forward with the tide into the azure expanse of water that is starred by the golden lights reflected from the houses upon its banks.' ²

Although Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge was described as being 'lately completed' on 19 February 1876, it may have been begun as early as two to three years before, after the completion of Blue and Silver: Screen, with Old Battersea Bridge y139, which shows essentially the same subject and which Whistler himself said he was finishing on 20 December 1872.

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, Tate Britain

The view in Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge y140 shows the Albert Bridge in the background, possibly in the process of construction, but in Blue and Silver: Screen, with Old Battersea Bridge y139 the bridge is dark, whereas in Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge it is seen lit up. This suggests that, although Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge may have been conceived at the same time as the Screen, the finishing touches were unlikely to have been added before the Albert Bridge was opened to the public in August 1873. ³

The fact that Whistler called it 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver No. 5' in 1876-1877 suggested to A. McLaren Young that it was painted later than the Nocturnes of the very early 1870s, such as Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea y103. ⁴ However, the numbering of 'Nocturnes in blue and silver' was unknown before Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge y140, which became the first 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' to be recorded as part of a numbered series. The next to be recorded was designated the third in the series, Nocturne in Blue and Silver y118, in 1878. ⁵ Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea y103 may have been the 'Nocturne en bleu et argent, No. 1' exhibited with Les XX in Brussels in 1884 (cat. no. 2), but this is not certain. Neither Whistler's titles nor numbering can be relied upon.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Nocturne in blue and silver' (1875, Royal Pavilion Gallery, Brighton). ⁶
• 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver No. 5' (1876, Society of French Artists). ⁷
• 'Nocturne in Blue & Silver No 5' (1877, Whistler). ⁸
• 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' (1877, Grosvenor). ⁹
• Probably 'Nocturne en bleu et argent' (1888, Durand-Ruel). ¹⁰
• 'nocturne in blue and silver of old Battersea Bridge' (1888, T. Child). ¹¹
• 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver – Fragment of Old Battersea Bridge' (1889, Harper's New Monthly Magazine). ¹²
• 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' and 'Nocturne, Blue and Gold, Old Battersea Bridge' (1905, ISSPG). ¹³
• 'Nocturne Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge' (1892, Goupil). ¹⁴
• 'Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge' (1980, YMSM). ¹⁵

The preferred title is 'Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge'.

Whistler confused the titles for his Nocturnes with what sometimes appears like calculated perversity. Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge was first exhibited as a 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver', and indeed as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver No. 5' in what one might have thought was a numbered sequence in 1877, and it remained an (unnumbered) 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' for many years, becoming a 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold' only in 1892.

It was the first 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' to be numbered at all. The next to be recorded was No. 3 in the series, Nocturne in Blue and Silver y118, so numbered in 1878, which has not been identified. Finally, in 1883, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea y103 was exhibited as 'No. 1' in the series. No others are known from this series and it is doubtful if Whistler kept any record of them.

Furthermore, in his 1892 Goupil catalogue entry for Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, Whistler quoted a review originally published in Life about 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold, No. 3' – but Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Westminster Bridge y145 had been exhibited with that title in 1875. Not only that, but Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach (the painting under discussion) originally bore a label with the same title. And, although there were several paintings exhibited at times as Nocturnes in Blue and Gold, no other paintings were specifically numbered as part of a series of 'Nocturnes in Blue and Gold'.

Description

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, Tate Britain

A nocturne in vertical format, a view of the Thames from upstream, with a pier of Old Battersea Bridge, and beyond it, the clock tower of Chelsea Church on the left and the river receding into the distance at right. Lights reflect in the water. A small barge or lighter, with a man standing in the stern, having navigated safely under the bridge, is seen crossing diagonally from right to lower left.

During the Whistler v. Ruskin trial in 1878, Whistler said that the painting was a 'moonlight effect' and that it 'represents Battersea Bridge by moonlight'; asked, ‘Which part of the picture is the bridge?’ he replied:

‘Your Lordship is too close at present to the picture to perceive the effect I intended to produce at a distance. The spectator is supposed to be looking down the river toward London, The picture gives a view of the bridge and, looking through the arch, Chelsea Church in the further distance.' ¹⁶

Questioned again, ‘Do you say that this is a correct representation of Battersea Bridge?’ Whistler explained:

‘It was not my intent simply to make a copy of Battersea Bridge. I did not intend to paint a portrait of the bridge, but only a painting of a moonlight scene. As to what the picture represents, that depends on who looks at it. To some persons it may represent all that I intended; to others it may represent nothing.’ ¹⁷

Questioned about details he stated: 'the cascade of gold colour is a firework', the 'prevailing colour' was blue, the figures on the bridge were 'just what you like', and there was a barge underneath the bridge. And he repeated, 'The thing is in intended simply as a representation of moonlight. My whole scheme was only to bring about a certain harmony of colour.' ¹⁸

Later (in 1884) Whistler described it succinctly as 'a Nocturne of mine - tall - arch of Battersea bridge - with falling rocket.' ¹⁹

Site

Battersea Bridge crosses the river Thames between Chelsea and Battersea. Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge y033 is the earliest oil painting by Whistler depicting the whole bridge. From Lindsey Row he looked south across the river Thames, with the bridge to left. Small boats landed on the shore below his house – the Greaves boatyard was based there – and barges unloaded at the jetties. The factories and parks of Battersea were across the river.

The old timber Battersea Bridge dated back to 1771-1772, and was built by John Philips under the direction of Henry Holland. In 1879 it was described as 'one of the old-fashioned timber structures, which will before long have to be removed and a new bridge built in its place.' ²⁰ The old bridge was closed to traffic in 1883 and demolished in 1890. Sir Joseph Bazalgette's bridge was built to replace it, between 1886 and 1890.

Between 1859 and 1879 Whistler portrayed the old bridge in drawings, etchings, lithographs, lithotints and paintings, as well as on a folding screen and on a wall in his house in Chelsea. Whistler's studies were drawn either from a boat or the shore or from a jetty near his house on Lindsey Row.

Etchings – Under Old Battersea Bridge [168] and Old Battersea Bridge [188] – focus on the massive piers of the bridge. Single piles supporting a section of bridge (making a T-shaped composition) appear in several drawings (The new Albert Bridge, seen through old Battersea Bridge m0480, A span of old Battersea Bridge m0481, Old Battersea Bridge m0482, and Nocturne: Battersea Bridge m0485), and these also relate to Blue and Silver: Screen, with Old Battersea Bridge y139. The oil under discussion, Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge y140 is the most famous of the T-shaped compositions, dating from the early 1870s, and the composition reflects the strong influence of oriental prints.

Two chalk drawings – Old Battersea Bridge m0700 and The Tall Bridge m0701, dating from 1878 – are studies for two lithographs, The Broad Bridge c011 and The Tall Bridge c012 respectively.

The whole bridge is seen in another lithograph, Old Battersea Bridge, No. 2 c013, and finally in Old Battersea Bridge c018, which was drawn from a boat at high tide, when the water conceals much of the piers. Similarly, the high tide had concealed the considerable height of the piles in the earlier oil, Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge y033.

Comments

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, Tate Britain

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 79, September 1889, p. 494

Theodore Child (1846-1892) was the first to compare Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge y140 with the woodcut by Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) of a fête on a river at night, with fireworks, Moonlight at Ryogoko of 1856/1857. ²¹ In a number of Hiroshige's prints the composition is dominated by the curve of a great wooden bridge – in, for example, Clear Morning after a Snowfall at Nihonbashu Bridge (Nihonbashu yukibare no asa) from the Hundred Views of Famous Places of Edo, and Plates 39 and 53 from the Fifty-three Views of the Tokaido. ²²

Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge y140 and Whistler's screen (Blue and Silver: Screen, with Old Battersea Bridge y139) as well as several of his etchings (Under Old Battersea Bridge [168], and Old Battersea Bridge [188]) and lithotints (The Broad Bridge c011, The Tall Bridge c012, and Old Battersea Bridge, No. 2 c013) show this influence strongly. Of these etchings, Old Battersea Bridge [188] of 1879 is the most Asian in composition and detail.

Under Old Battersea Bridge [168] and the lithotint The Tall Bridge c012 of 1878 resemble Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (the painting under discussion here) most closely.

Technique

Composition

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, Tate Britain

Whistler, Nocturne: Battersea Bridge, pastel, Freer Gallery of Art

Whistler, Blue and Silver: Screen, with Old Battersea Bridge, The Hunterian

Whistler made numerous drawings and pastels of the bridge, such as the recto of r.: Nocturne: Battersea Bridge; v.: Standing Female Nude m0484. However, most of these are studies for Blue and Silver: Screen, with Old Battersea Bridge y139, which is closely related in composition to this oil painting.

Technique

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, Tate Britain

A detailed report by Professor Joyce H. Townsend provides both information and analysis of the technique, condition and conservation of the painting:

'There is tantalising evidence for up to three earlier images, now scraped down. A transmitted infrared image (not illustrated) suggests that the canvas had an earlier use in the same orientation, for a face that filled most of its area; the X-radiograph does not show this at all clearly although it does suggest the same earlier image. The paint is (collectively) untypically thick despite the thinness of the final image, so X-radiography had to be done using a higher voltage than is usually necessary. The X-radiograph suggests another image upside-down on the canvas: a half-length figure possibly with a palette on the lap, probably dark-haired, since the plentiful cloud of hair includes very little lead white, the pigment that makes the technique of X-radiography so useful for rendering earlier images. This could have been a Whistler self-portrait. It also suggests an earlier composition with the left side of the bridge possibly on land at the bottom of the image, with some figures extending about halfway up the canvas. This image was the most severely rubbed down. The sequence of painting these earlier images cannot be determined with X-radiography.

The canvas is quite fine, with slubs (thicker threads of uneven width), and knots that can be seen where Whistler rubbed the paint down to the tops of the canvas threads. It has an off-white commercial priming made from two layers of lead white in oil upon a glue-sized canvas, to which he applied a mid-toned pinkish brown imprimatura containing mainly lead white and lamp black, giving it a warmer tone than the bone black he often employed, in oil medium. Its perceived pinkish colour, visible where it composes the shore line, is an effect of juxtaposition against the blue tones surrounding it.

Cusping can be seen only on the top edges, indicating the original points of attachment of the canvas to a larger stretcher. The absence of cusping on the other three sides indicate a loss of at least 10-15 mm on the other three sides, when the canvas was attached to the present stretcher.

The imprimatura was utilised for the distant shore, by not covering it with blue paint. The sequence of painting involved applying localised white paint for the first planned positions of the fireworks, then thinned blue paint for the water and the sky, with several attempts rubbed down, sometimes to the canvas tops, on many occasions revealing the brown imprimatura or the white priming. The span of the bridge was painted next. It is not clear if this area had only imprimatura up till then, or was painted blue. The pier of the bridge was clearly applied over the water, and by the time the pier was painted, the water coming up to the line of the shore was already drying. Whistler then altered it close to the bridge pier, and today this area has fine cracking in consequence. The sky seen through the bridge struts was applied over them, and the lights and their reflections were placed at the same time. The boatman was added very late, and this area has a localised and unique pattern of cracking. The multiple modification of the fireworks occurred at a late stage as well. The most prominent rocket was applied to still-wet paint, which was then partly wiped way to create a diminishing trail of paint for its tail. The paint in this topmost image is very thin and was also highly thinned, with added medium modifier to maintain gloss and to reduce dripping down the canvas. Its fluorescence in ultraviolet light, tendency to soften when slightly heated, and high refractive index, all suggest a medium modifier based on natural resins, as well as oil tube paint and turpentine.

All the blue paint contains lead white and Prussian blue, toned with lamp black and brown ochre, not bone black, as well as madder and another red lake pigment. The bridge and the smoke in the sky were also painted with brown, not black, pigments. The fireworks include lead white, mars orange (a brightly-coloured synthetic iron oxide), red mixed with white for the pink tones, and a bright yellow that was not identified.

There are some retouches in the area of sky with the rockets, at top right. Clearly paint has flaked in this area, and the X-radiograph makes it clear that Whistler removed some rockets and added others, by scraping and re-applying paint. If the surface were already drying, flaking would be expected. Below the bridge, in two areas where Whistler’s abrasion was severe, there are two blocks of retouching. The upper edge has the remains of a resinous varnish (though it is not clear from which of the several images), and the tower has tended to absorb paint medium.' ²³

Conservation History

Professor Townsend also discussed the later conservation of the painting:

'In 1942 the painting had been removed from London during World War II, and it was treated at Glasgow Museums by National Gallery restorer Helmut Ruhemann, who lined the canvas using wax/resin adhesive (or sent it out for lining, as was common at the time), removed a yellowed and tinted varnish, and retouched some areas, presumably after applying the ‘varnish’ of ‘wax and carnauba cream only’ which he noted. His notes imply that this was the first occasion when the canvas was lined. Since the original stretcher is not in use now, he must have replaced it. A fine-scale crack pattern suggests that the original stretching was uneven, the canvas threads having been pulled down at the bottom right corner. Wax lining tends to modify the texture and gloss of the paint surface less than did the glue-based linings and natural resin varnishes applied to many of Whistler’s works in his own lifetime or shortly afterwards, and Ruhemann likely took a cautious approach to varnish removal too.'

Little original or early varnish remains, the present varnish being a synthetic resin. Hence there is little discolouration from the yellowed varnishes that are seen on some other nocturnes, and the tonality is close to Whistler’s intention. This painting has had fewer conservation treatments and varnish removals than many, and on the surface there are traces of a proteinaceous layer that might be a temporary egg white varnish applied by Whistler soon after painting. He appears to have used this on a number of sketches on panel in mid and later life, possibly to fix drawing in charcoal or even flaking paint. Typical cycles of varnish removal in the earlier twentieth century would have removed such evidence. The light wax coating that protects the surface today fulfils a similar protective function to an egg white varnish, without unduly saturating the colours, and may well be presenting a good impression of the surface as seen when Whistler first displayed this painting.' ²⁴

Frame

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, photograph, 1980

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, frame, 1980

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, detail

Description: Flat Whistler frame, painted seigaiha and butterfly. Support: 68.3 x 51.2 cm; frame: 92.2 x 76.0 x 8.3 cm.

History: 1876/1878: Flat Whistler frame made by Foord & Dickinson: gold leaf (oil gilding) on wood (oak on pine) painted with seigaiha pattern and butterfly signature. ²⁵

The oil paint of the seigaiha (blue sea wave) pattern has been applied more delicately and fluidly than on the Tate’s earlier Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea y103. It is also present on both the frieze and two fillets. There is a butterfly signature located at the mid-right rail.

1878: The picture was displayed in 'a small retrospective' during the Whistler v. Ruskin trial in November 1878, when Whistler hoped it would ‘vindicate his position as an established accomplished artist.' ²⁶ During the trial, Whistler said:

'The blue colouring on the gilt frame is part of the scheme of the picture. The blue spot on the right side of the frame is my monogram, which I place on the frame as well as the canvas; it balances the picture. The frame and the picture together are a work of art.' ²⁷

1905: The glazed outer-frame was fitted around the time of accession by the Tate in 1905 to protect the painting and frame’s surface.

History

Provenance

• 1877: sent by Whistler to William Graham (1817-1885);
• 1886: after Graham's death in 1885, sold at his sale, Christie's, London, 3 April 1886 (lot 120) as 'A Nocturne in Blue and Silver' and bought by Robert Hichens Camden Harrison (1837-1924), Liverpool, for 60 gns (£63.0.0);
• By 1905: sold by Harrison to the National Art-Collections Fund for £2000;
• 1905: presented to the National Gallery, London, in July, and transferred to the Tate Gallery, also in 1905.

In July 1877 Whistler wrote to the collector William Graham, M.P., 'I send herewith a picture which many are pleased with and which I myself prize - "Nocturne in Blue & Silver No 5-" May I beg that you will accept it meanwhile as a small amends for my long accumulated debt and apparent neglect and ingratitude.' The nocturne was sent in the place of Annabel Lee y079, for which Graham had already paid £100, but which Whistler never completed. ²⁸

In 1878, during preparations for the Whistler v. Ruskin trial, the value of the painting was recorded by Whistler's attorney, James Anderson Rose (1819-1890), as 150 guineas (£164.10.0). ²⁹ Whistler's statement was modified to specify that it 'was sent by me to Mr Graham in about 1877 in lieu of a picture which he had from me a commission to paint for 150 gns.' ³⁰

After Graham's sale at Christie's in 1886, The Observer on 4 April 1886 reported: 'The next work on the easel was "A Nocturne in Blue & Silver," by J. M. Whistler. It was received with hisses. This nocturne, which was used in evidence at the trial of Whistler versus Ruskin, fetched 60gs.' Whistler wrote excitedly to D. C. Thomson of Goupil's:

'Did you buy the "Nocturne in Blue & Silver", at the Graham sale the other day at Christie's? -

If not you have missed it!! - I relied on your getting it - and just think of the unheard of success!! It was received with hisses!!! So the Observer says -

This you know is the very first example of the kind.' ³¹

He also wrote ironically to the editor of The Observer: 'It is rare that recognition, so complete, is made during the lifetime of the painter, and I would wish to have recorded my full sense of the flattering exception in my favour.' ³²

Exhibitions

• 1875: 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'.
• 1876: 12th Exhibition, Society of French Artists, Deschamps Gallery, London, 1876 (cat. no. 147) as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver No. 5'.
• 1877: I Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1877 (cat. no. 6A) as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver'.
• 1888: Exposition Brown, Boudin, Caillebotte, Lepine, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Whistler, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1888 (cat. no. 39 or 42) as 'Nocturne en bleu et argent'.
• 1892: Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 4) as 'Nocturne Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge'.
• 1905: 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) 'Nocturne, Blue and Gold, Old Battersea Bridge'; and 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver' (ordinary edition).

The generic title makes it difficult to identify the exhibition history of this painting fully. It was probably exhibited in Brighton in 1875 as 'Nocturne in blue and silver', priced at £315, and as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver No. 5' at the Society of French Artists in the following year.

1875: Brighton.

Reviews of Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge were not totally unsympathetic, and one critic attempted to give both sides of critical opinion:

'Everyone will be struck by two pictures [Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge y140, Nocturne in Blue and Gold y141], all blue, almost monotone, which will stand alone, and not a few perchance, may be inclined to ridicule them. Some may think that a guinea would be poorly spent over such works, and will be amazed when they find one of them valued at ... four hundred guineas! ... Viewed by close inspection they appear like very bad attempts at scene painting ... But we have need to retreat to a distance and let the subject grow upon the eye; then the charm of the work comes out and the significance of every stroke tells; there is nothing superfluous; nothing wanting; there is nature itself painted in so few strokes that they can almost be counted, and truthful work, though but a single colour has been used in different tones.' ³³

1877: Grosvenor Gallery, London.

Mixed reviews heralded the painting when it was exhibited in the first exhibition of Sir Coutts Lindsay’s new Grosvenor Gallery. Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge hung with other Thames subjects – Nocturne in Blue and Silver, Nocturne: Grey and Gold – Westminster Bridge and Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket – in the gallery.

Among reviews in 1877 Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) wrote that Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge y140 was 'rather prettier' than Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket y170 and 'worth looking at for about as long as one looks at a real rocket, that is, for somewhat less than a quarter of a minute.' ³⁴ Both these paintings drew the fire of the influential critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), who wrote in Fors Clavigera that he ‘never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.' ³⁵

1878: London, continued.

Whistler sued Ruskin for libel, and the ensuing court case was widely reported in the press. Ruskin's solicitors, Walker Martineau & Co., asked to see the paintings that had been shown at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, before the trial, and did so on 16 November 1878. ³⁶ Whistler begged Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-1890) to come and see his paintings and appear as a witness at the trial:

'On Monday next my battle with Ruskin comes off - and I shall call on you to state boldly your opinion of Whistler generally as a painter - colorist - and worker ...what I gather is that I must have with me some of my own craft to state that what I produce is Art - otherwise Ruskin's assertion that it is not, remains - Moreover he is prepared with an army of volunteers ready to swear that Whistler's work is mere impudence and sham - and among these gentlemen prominent is Stacey Marks. 'RA -' ready it is said to assert that he can paint a Whistler Nocturne in five minutes in Court! ... I know you wont hesitate ... Meantime ... take fresh confidence in your pal as a painter while you see again the works I have gathered together in my studio!' ³⁷

The case was heard at the Queen's Bench of the High Court on 25-26 November 1878. On the morning of the 25th, Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge and Nocturne in Blue and Silver y113 were compared in court to Ruskin's main target, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, as evidence in the libel suit.

Press reports of the Whistler v Ruskin trial suggest that Whistler's replies about it under cross-examination were considerably expanded in his own version of the trial proceedings, published in pamphlet form in 1878, and elaborated in 1890. ³⁸ During the trial, Whistler was called on to explain ‘the meaning of the word “nocturne” as applied to your pictures’. He replied:

‘By using the word “nocturne” I wish to indicate an artistic interest alone, divesting the picture of any outside anecdotal interest which might have been otherwise attached to it. A nocturne is an arrangement of line, form and colour first. The picture is throughout a problem that I attempt to solve. I make use of any means, any incident or object in nature, that will bring about this symmetrical result.’ ³⁹

According to the accounts published in several newspapers, Whistler was asked by the Attorney-General, counsel for the defendant, 'Do you say that this is a correct representation of Battersea Bridge?' and he replied:

'I did not intend it to be a correct portrait of the bridge, but only a painting of a moonlight scene. What is that mark on the right of the picture, like a cascade – is it a firework? – Yes. What is that peculiar dark mark on the frame ? – That is all a part of my scheme. It balances the picture. The frame and the picture together are a work of art.' ⁴⁰

Whistler sent his pamphlet on the trial, Art and Art Critics, to friends, and the writer Welbore St Clair Baddeley (1856-1945) responded, 'I gathered ... that what were liked most among your Grosvenor pictures were the nocturnes ... Your wondrous night atmosphere first arrested my gaze until I felt a curious fascination towards the objects so mysteriously and truthfully reposing in it.' ⁴¹

1887-1888: London and Paris.

It was possibly considered for exhibition at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1887, but it was neither included in their 64th Annual show nor listed in a proposed retrospective of Whistler's work. ⁴² However, it was certainly exhibited with Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1888, when Theodore Child (1846-1892), who needed illustrations for an article about Whistler, asked him, 'Why not tell Durand-Ruel to lend us one of those lovely nocturnes e.g. The Bridge or the other one?' ⁴³

'Nocturne in Blue and Silver – Fragment of Old Battersea Bridge', Harper's New Monthly Magazine, September 1889, engraving

In response, 'Le Pont' (or according to Child, 'The nocturne of the Bridge') was sent by Paul Durand-Ruel to Charles Baude (1853-1935) to be engraved, and was published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in September 1889. ⁴⁴

1892: Goupil Gallery, London.

Whistler was keen to have what he described as Harrison's 'Nocturne. "Blue & Gold." Old Battersea Bridge' in his Goupil retrospective, and on 25 February 1892, D. C. Thomson reassured him 'Mr Harrison has also at last consented.' ⁴⁵ On the other hand, Harrison refused to pay for the cleaning, saying, 'The cleaning was done solely because Mr Whistler thought it would look better, & had I wished it cleaned, I should have had it done myself before I moved it into the Country.' ⁴⁶

In the exhibition catalogue, Whistler mocked his earlier critics by quoting from reviews that in some way related to the painting. A review from Life, used to illustrate Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, stated that one of Whistler's nocturnes ‘might have been called, with a similar confusion of term: A Farce in Moonshine, with half-a-dozen dots.' ⁴⁷ It was followed by a quotation from evidence given by Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898) – for which Whistler never forgave him – at the Whistler v. Ruskin trial on 16 November 1878:

' "The picture representing a night scene on Battersea Bridge has no composition and detail. A day, or a day and a half, seems a reasonable time within which to paint it. It shows no finish – it is simply a sketch." ' ⁴⁸

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. 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.