How you can use this image

This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).

You can reproduce this image for non-commercial purposes and you are not able to change or modify it in any way.

Wherever you reproduce the image you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s) and the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other rights holders.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Download

More information

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

Painted in August 1871, this is the first of Whistler's Nocturnes. In these works Whistler aimed to convey a sense of the beauty and tranquility of the Thames by night. It was Frederick Leyland who first used the name 'nocturne' to describe Whistler's moonlit scenes. It aptly suggests the notion of a night scene, but with musical associations. The expression was quickly adopted by Whistler, who later explained, 'By using the word ''nocturne'' I wished 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' (quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). Returning from a trip by steamer to Westminster, Whistler was inspired, one evening in August 1871, by a view of the river 'in a glow of rare transparency an hour before sunset' (Anna Whistler, the artist's mother, in a letter to Julia and Kate Palmer, 3 Nov.

1871, quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). He immediately rushed to his studio and painted a sunset ('Variations in Violet and Green', private collection) and this moonlit scene at one sitting. The picture is painted on panel, primed with dark grey paint, over which Whistler applied thin layers of pigment in order to create a contrasting sense of luminosity. The view is from Battersea looking across to Chelsea, and it is possible to make out features on the horizon, such as the tower of Chelsea Old Church on the right. In the foreground, a low barge and the figure of a fisherman are indicated with the minimum of detail, and the influence of Japanese art is evident in the restricted palette, the economy of line and the characteristic butterfly signature. This picture was exhibited, along with its pair, at the Dudley Gallery in November 1871. The critic for The Times revealed a rare appreciation of Whistler's Nocturnes, describing them as follows: 'They are illustrations of the theory … that painting is so closely akin to music that the colours of the one may and should be used, like the ordered sounds of the other; that painting should not aim at expressing dramatic emotions, depicting incidents of history or recording facts of nature, but should be content with moulding our moods and stirring our imaginations, by subtle combinations of colour, through which all that painting has to say to us can be said, and beyond which painting has no valuable or true speech whatever' ('The Times', 14 November 1871).

Further reading: Richard Dorment and Margaret F. MacDonald, 'James McNeill Whistler', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1994, pp.122–123, no.46, reproduced in colour p.123. Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), 'The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones & Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860–1910', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.206–207 no.79, reproduced in colour p.207. Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer with the assistance of Hamish Miles, 'The Paintings of James MacNeill Whistler', New Haven and London, 1980, no. 103, reproduced in colour plate 106. Frances Fowle December 2000

Tate Britain

London

Title

Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea

Date

1871

Medium

Oil on wood

Measurements

H 50.2 x W 60.8 cm

Accession number

T01571

Acquisition method

Bequeathed by Miss Rachel and Miss Jean Alexander 1972

Work type

Painting

Inscription description

date inscribed

Read less

Tate Britain

Millbank, London, Greater London SW1P 4RG England

This venue is open to the public. Not all artworks are on display. If you want to see a particular artwork, please contact the venue.

View venue

Artist or maker

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

1834–1903

View profile

Harmony in White and Blue Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries
Nocturne: Grey and Gold, Westminster Bridge The Burrell Collection
Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Portrait of a Man in Evening Dress The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology
The Shore, Pourville The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology
Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel Tate
Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl Tate Britain
113 more