The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Nocturne en bleu et or was first recorded in 1888, but since most of Whistler's Nocturnes were painted in the 1870s, the most likely date is between 1872 and 1876.

Altogether, four Nocturnes were exhibited at the Exposition Brown, Boudin, Caillebotte, Lepine, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Whistler, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1888: two called ‘Nocturne en bleu et argent’ (cat. nos. 39 and 42), one ‘Nocturne en bleu et or’ (cat. no. 46), and one ‘Nocturne en noir et or’ (cat. no. 51). Until now, the ‘Nocturne en bleu et or’ had been identified as Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge y140, which, however, is now thought to have been exhibited in 1888 as one of the two Nocturnes in Blue and Silver (see Nocturne en bleu et argent y149). This means that, at the moment, there is no other persuasive identification for the ‘Nocturne en noir et or’.

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title is known:

• 'Nocturne en bleu et or' (1888, Durand-Ruel). ¹

'Nocturne en bleu et or' was a typical 'value-added' title (silver and gold sounded more precious than grey and yellow).

Description

It was a night scene, presumably with yellow lights from ships or buildings or fireworks.

Site

Unknown.

Technique

Technique

Unknown. The Chronique des arts et de la curiosité pointed out the ‘fluidité’ (meaning both fluidity and fluency) of the brushwork in the nocturnes. ² Another art critic described them as ‘barely a scumble of colour and of imperceptible nuances’ (‘à peine un frottis de couleur et des nuances insaisissables’). ³

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• Unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1888: Exposition Brown, Boudin, Caillebotte, Lepine, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Whistler, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1888 (cat. no. 46) as 'Nocturne en bleu et or'.

Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay, Freer Gallery of Art

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – St Mark's, Venice, National Museum of Wales

In addition to the two Nocturnes in Blue and Silver, Durand-Ruel also showed a Nocturne in Blue and Gold, that is, three ‘blue’ Nocturnes in total. Several Nocturnes would have been available for the exhibition, among them Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay y076 and Nocturne: Blue and Gold - St Mark's, Venice y213. The contemporary reviews are not very specific in their descriptions, which complicates a convincing identification. The writer for the Chronique des arts et de la curiosité pointed out the ‘fluidité’ (meaning both fluidity and fluency) of the nocturnes. ⁴ Albert Michel described them as ‘barely a scumble of colour and of imperceptible nuances’ (‘à peine un frottis de couleur et des nuances insaisissables’). ⁵

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) as 'Nocturne en bleu et or'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Exposition: Brown, Boudin, Caillebotte, Lépine, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Whistler, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1888 (cat. no. 46) as ‘Nocturne en bleu et or’.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., ‘L’Exposition des Indépendants’, Le XIXe siècle, 30 May 1888, p. 2.
• ‘A. R.’, ‘Deux Expositions d’art indépendant’, Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, 16 June 1888, p. 181.
• Michel, Albert, ‘Impressions artistiques’, La Société nouvelle, vol. 4, 1888, pp. 554-64, at p. 561.