The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Nocturne: Grey and Silver dates from between 1875 and 1878. ¹ It is possible that it was one of the 'two smaller Nocturnes' described by Whistler as 'unfinished' in his house at 2 Lindsey Row in February 1876. ²

Nocturne: Grey and Silver, Philadelphia Museum of Art

It is dated from the technique, but is hard to date precisely.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• Possibly 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold' (1875, Society of French Artists). ³
• 'Nocturne de "Battersea Grey & Gold"' (Whistler, 1887). ⁴
• 'Nocturne Grey & Silver' (1892, Whistler). ⁵
• 'Nocturne' (1894, Petit). ⁶
• Probably 'Westminster Palace in Fog' (1907, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh). ⁷
• Probably 'Nocturne' (1902, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh). ⁸
• 'Nocturne: Grey and Silver' (1980, YMSM). ⁹

'Nocturne: Grey and Silver' is the preferred title.

Description

Nocturne: Grey and Silver, Philadelphia Museum of Art

A view across a river on a very dark night, in horizontal format. Buildings, including a clock-tower, on the far bank, are reflected softly in the water.

Site

The river Thames in London. The title given to the painting in 1897, 'Westminster Palace in Fog', may be correct, and the subject Westminster Palace. ¹⁰ However, the clock-tower is too much blurred by fog and darkness to be identified. The then owner, Theodore Duret, appears to have called the subject Battersea in 1892, but the site was not confirmed by Whistler. ¹¹

Technique

Technique

Nocturne: Grey and Silver, Philadelphia Museum of Art

It is painted on fairly fine canvas. It may not have lost in detail over the years but has undoubtedly changed in colour. Whistler's original title was 'Grey & Silver'. Geffroy's description was suitably poetic but not very specific: 'C'est la nuit ... qui lui donne cette couleur inclassée que l'on voit les yeux fermés.' ¹² In 1893 George Moore (1852-1933) described it evocatively as 'luminous blue shadow, delicately graduated ... purple above and below, a shadow in the middle of the picture - a little less and there would be nothing.' ¹³ As Marc Simpson comments, Whistler's admirers 'reveled in the works' power of suggestion' while 'For those negatively inclined, the outrage was equally fervid'. ¹⁴

Conservation History

Nocturne: Grey and Silver, photo

Unknown. It is in good condition.

Frame

1892: Grau Whistler frame, signed on the verso by 'F. H. Grau, London.'

Nocturne: Grey and Silver, frame, Philadelphia Museum of Art

History

Provenance

• By 1887: Théodore Duret (1838-1927), Paris;
• 1894: sold at auction, Petit, Paris, 19 March 1894 (lot 42) as 'Nocturne' and bought by Knoedler's for an American client;
• 1894: bought by John Graver Johnson (1841-1917);
• 1917: bequeathed by him to the City of Philadelphia;
• 1933: transferred to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

It is not known what happened to this painting at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879.

In 1887 Whistler asked Duret where he had bought 'Nocturne de "Battersea Grey & Gold"' and asked him not to exhibit it at the Galerie Georges Petit. ¹⁵ It was described as in Duret's collection by Gustave Geffroy (1855-1926) in June 1891. ¹⁶ It was also listed by Whistler as 'Nocturne Grey & Silver' owned by Duret in 1892. ¹⁷ It was sold with Duret's collection at auction in 1894, when Whistler commented to D. C. Thomson,

'As to the Duret sale - I have heard others say that it is not likely to meet with good prices at all - It is scarcely the best moment - and I don't know that large sums are given for those particular "Masters"? so that I fancy my little Nocturne will be lost as usual.' ¹⁸

It was bought by the New York art dealers M. Knoedler & Co., for 4000 francs, according to Mireur, on behalf of an American client, and was shipped to America early in April 1894. ¹⁹ The purchaser was John G. Johnson of Philadelphia. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) saw it and commented, 'I must have one of your marine nocturnes ... How beautiful the one brought over during the early summer for Mr. Johnson of Philadelphia!' ²⁰ It was bequeathed by Johnson to the City of Philadelphia, and moved to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1933.

Exhibitions

• 1897: probably Second Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1897 (cat. no. 238) as 'Westminster Palace in Fog'.
• 1902: probably A Loan Exhibition of Paintings at the Carnegie Institute, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1902 (cat. no. 149) as 'Nocturne'.
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 59) as 'Nocturne—"Westminster" '.

Remotely possibly exhibited in the Grosvenor Gallery, 1878 (cat. no. 56) as 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold' (but see Nocturne in Blue and Gold y154).

In 1887 Whistler asked Theodore Duret not to exhibit 'Nocturne de "Battersea Grey & Gold"' at the Galerie George Petit because he was already arranging to send a group of works. ²¹ In 1892, although Duret's 'Nocturne Grey & Silver' was among paintings suggested by Whistler for his retrospective at Goupil's in London, no reply was forthcoming from the owner. ²²

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. 156), plate 88, as 'Nocturne: Grey and Silver'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly 12th Exhibition, Society of French Artists, Deschamps Gallery, London, 1876 (cat. no. 56) as 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold'.
• Probably Second Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1897 (cat. no. 238) as 'Westminster Palace in Fog'.
• Probably A Loan Exhibition of Paintings at the Carnegie Institute, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1902 (cat. no. 149) as 'Nocturne'.
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 59) as 'Nocturne—"Westminster" '.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Geffroy, Gustave, 'James MacNeill Whistler', La Justice, 1 July 1891
• Geffroy, Gustave, 'Whistler', Le Gaulois, Paris, 4 November 1891.

Journals 1855-1905

• Geffroy, Gustave, 'James MacNeill Whistler', L'Art dans les Deux Mondes, vol. 2, no. 32, 27 June 1891, pp. 63-65.

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. 59).
• Merrill, Linda, With Kindest Regards. The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, Washington, DC, and London, 1995, no. 16, pp. 93-95.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 124 ).
• Sutton, Denys, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolours, London, 1966, repr. pl. 79.

Books, General

• Corbett, David Peters, The World in Paint: Modern Art and Visuality in England, 1848-1914, University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004, pl. 43.
• Flint, Kate, The Victorians and the Visual Imagination, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 304, pl. 66.
• Moore, George, Modern Painting, London, 1893, pp. 22-3.
• Mireur, H., Dictionnaire des ventes d'art faites en France et à l'étranger pendant les X V II me et X IX me siècles, 9 vols., Paris, 1901-12, in 1912, p. 501.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995 (cat. no. 50).
• Warner, Malcolm, ‎Anne Helmreich, ‎and Charles Brock, The Victorians: British painting, 1837-1901, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1996 (cat. no. 30).
• 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 pp. 31-32, 34, repr. p. 33.
• Lochnan, Katharine, Turner, Whistler, Monet, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Tate Britain, London, 2004-2005 (cat. no. 49).

Journals 1906-Present

• Newton, Joy, and Margaret F. MacDonald, 'Whistler: Search for a European Reputation', Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte, vol. 41, 1978, pp. 148-59, at pp. 158-59.

Websites

• Philadelphia Museum of Art website at http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/101799.html.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 76) 'Westminster Palace, nocturne / Nocturne in grey and gold.'

Other

• Siewert, John, 'Whistler’s Nocturnes and the Aesthetic Subject', PhD thesis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1994.