James McNeill Whistler (Lowell, Massachusetts, 1834 - 1903, London, England)
Nocturne, Blue and Silver: Battersea Reach, about 1872-1878
Oil on canvas , 39.4 x 62.9 cm (15 1/2 x 24 3/4 in.)
This horizontal oil shows a view at night of Battersea Reach along the Thames River in London. The painting is mostly blue and gray in tone. Whistler brushed thinned pigment across the canvas in bold, sweeping strokes, modulating the tone of the blue only slightly to create the subtle gradations that separate river, shore, and sky. On first glance, the image appears murky, but gradually we can distinguish a deeper gray band crossing the canvas from left to right at the center and at the bottom. Specks of orange and yellow in the center mark the position of boasts on the water, to our left of center and north, a clock tower, and to our left of center and south, lights on the shore. In the lower corner to our right, the painting is signed with Whistler’s butterfly signature. The painting is framed with a gilded ribbed frame that almost dwarfs the painting itself.
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Object details
Accession number
P1e1
Primary Creator
James McNeill Whistler (Lowell, Massachusetts, 1834 - 1903, London, England)
Full title
Nocturne, Blue and Silver: Battersea Reach
Creation Date
about 1872-1878
Provenance
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from James McNeill Whistler, Paris on 25 June 1895 for 600 guineas.
Marks
Signed (lower right): Whistler's butterfly signature
Dimensions
39.4 x 62.9 cm (15 1/2 x 24 3/4 in.)
Display Media
Oil on canvas
Dimension Notes
Frame: 76.2 x 99.06 cm (30 x 39 in.)
Web Commentary
Whistler was living in Chelsea, across the Thames from Battersea, when he painted this nocturne. He brushed thinned pigment across the canvas in bold, sweeping strokes, modulating the tone of the blue only slightly to create the subtle gradations that separate river, shore, and sky. Specks of orange and yellow mark the position of boats on the water, lights on the shore, and a clock tower in the distance.
Source: Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 200.
Permanent Gallery Location
Yellow Room
Bibliography
Art Exhibition: Mrs. John L. Gardner, 152 Beacon St., Boston. Exh. cat. (Boston, 1899), p. 3, no. 9.Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 2. (as "Symphony in Blue")Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 417-18.Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 17.Stuart Preston. "Nocturne, Blue and Silver: Battersea Reach" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 54.Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 291-92.Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), p. 200.Cynthia Saltzman. Old Masters, New World: America’s Raid on Europe’s Great Pictures (New York: Penguin Books, 2008), p. 53.Christine M. E. Guth. "Multisensorial Asia" in Alan Chong and Noriko Murai (eds.). Inventing Asia: American Perspectives Around 1900. Fenway Court, vol. 33 (Boston, 2014), p. 96. Hélène Valance. Nocturne: Night in American Art, 1890-1917 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018), pp. 2-3, fig. 3.Rights and reproductions
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Yellow Room
Commentary
Whistler was living in Chelsea, across the Thames from Battersea, when he painted this nocturne. He brushed thinned pigment across the canvas in bold, sweeping strokes, modulating the tone of the blue only slightly to create the subtle gradations that separate river, shore, and sky. Specks of orange and yellow mark the position of boats on the water, lights on the shore, and a clock tower in the distance.
Source: Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 200.
Source: Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 200.