Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
James McNeill Whistler, 1834–1903, American, active in Britain (from 1859)
Title:
Nocturne in Blue and Silver
Date:
1872 to 1878, butterfly added ca. 1885
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
17 1/2 x 24 inches (44.5 x 61 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Signed in monogram with butterfly, lower left
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1994.19
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
dark | marine art | seascape | signature (name) | town | waterfront | boat | blue | abstract art | night | industry | darkness | water | music | factories | clock tower | buildings | river | shore (landform) | lights | sea
Associated Places:
England | United Kingdom | Thames | London | Chelsea | Battersea | Greater London
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
YUAG European Galleries (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-12-01 - 2025-01-15)

In a New Light: Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-03-24 - 2023-12-03)

Whistler in Paris, London and Venice (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-01-30 - 2015-07-15)

James McNeil Whistler Retrospective (Japan) (The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 2014-09-13 - 2014-11-16)

James McNeil Whistler Retrospective (Japan) (The Yokohama Museum of Art, 2014-12-16 - 2015-03-01)

An American in London: Whistler and the Thames (Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2014-05-02 - 2014-08-14)

An American in London: Whistler and the Thames (Addison Gallery of American Art, 2014-02-01 - 2014-04-13)

Like Breath on Glass - Painting Softly from James McNeill Whistler through Arthur B. Davies (Clark Art Institute, 2008-06-22 - 2008-10-19)

Art and Music in Britain: Four Encounters, 1730-1900 (Yale Center for British Art, 2006-10-05 - 2006-12-31)

Whistler " The Naval Review " (Yale Center for British Art, 2005-05-19 - 2005-08-15)

Turner , Whistler , Monet (Musée d'Orsay, 2004-10-16 - 2005-01-16)

After Whistler (High Museum of Art, 2003-11-22 - 2004-02-10)

After Whistler (The Detroit Institute of Arts, 2004-03-06 - 2004-05-20)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)

A Palace of Art in Victorian England - The Grosvenor Gallery (Denver Art Museum, 1996-06-01 - 1996-08-25)

A Palace of Art in Victorian England - The Grosvenor Gallery (Yale Center for British Art, 1996-03-01 - 1996-04-28)

James McNeill Whistler (Tate Britain, 1994-10-12 - 1995-01-08)

James McNeill Whistler (National Gallery of Art, 1995-05-28 - 1995-08-20)
Publications:
M. V. Alper, American Mythologies in Painting, Arts Magazine, vol. 46, Summer 1972, p. 50, N1 A415 OVERSISE (HAAS)

Timothy J. Barringer, Art & music in Britain : four encounters, 1730-1900 (exhibition and label text), , New Haven, 2006, [p. 6], V 1699:1 (YCBA)

Timothy J. Barringer, Art & music in Britain : four encounters, 1730-1900, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2006, pp. 30-31, 34, V 1699 (YCBA)

David Bindman, The History of British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2008, p. 85 (vol. 3), fig. 55, N6761 +H57 2008 Oversize (YCBA)

Susan P. Casteras, The Grosvenor Gallery, a palace of art in Victorian England , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1996, pp. 97, 199, no. 68, fig. 53, pl. 32, N1165 G76 G76 1996 (YCBA)

Richard Dorment, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Publishing, London, 1994, p. 128, no. 52, NJ18 W57 D67 1994 (YCBA) +

Facetiae [The Newest Thing in Wall-Paper], London Reader: Of Literature, Science, Art and General Information, vol. 32, January 1879, p. 238, Available in British Periodicals Database.

Grosvenor notes 1878 : an illustrated catalogue of the summer exhibition, Accessed January 13, 2023, p. 20, no. 53, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t52g3463j&view=1up&seq=1

Susan Hobbs, Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Magazine Antiques, vol. 120, November 1981, pp. 1194-202, NK1125 A3 OVERSIZE (HAAS)

Donald Holden, James McNeill Whistler: Master of Limited Color, American Artist, vol. 37, April 1973, pp. 38-43, N1 A243 OVERSIZE (HAAS)

Terry Ingram, A Win for Yale, ART News, February 1995, p. 33, N1 A6 OVERSIZE (HAAS)

James McNeill Whistler retrospective, Nihon Ho¯so¯ Kyo¯kai, Tokyo, 2014, pp. 181, 277, cat. no. 124, NJ18.W57 J35 2014 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Lagoon, Venice : Nocturne in Blue and Silver (Art Reproduction), ArtsCanada, v. 28, October 1971, p. 18, J10 Ar918 OVERSIZE (HAAS)

Katharine Jordan Lochnan, Mystical Landscapes From Vincent van Gogh to Emily Carr, Toronto, Ontario, p. 174-175, ND1340 .L63 2016 (LC) Oversize

Katharine Jordan Lochnan, Turner, Whistler, Monet, Tate Publishing, London, 2004, no. 48, NJ18 T85 L5652 2004 (YCBA) +

Margaret F. MacDonald, An American in London : Whistler and the Thames, London, 2013, pp. 128, 174, cat. no. 65, NJ18.W57 M2422 2013 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 164, no. 67, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)

John McDonald, A Feast of Mellon, Sydney Morning Herald, May 9, 1998, p. 14, ProQuest News & Newspapers : Global Newsstream

Linda Merrill, After Whistler, the artist and his influence on American painting , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2003, pp. 4, 110-11, no. 6, NJ18 W57 A4 2003 + (YCBA)

Christopher Neve, View of the River: James McNeill Whistler in London, Country Life, v. 148, December 10 1970, pp. 1122-23, S3 C68 + (YCBA)

Jon Newman, Whistler and Battersea : the aesthetics of erasure and redevelopment, British Art Studies, Accessed January 26, 2023, fig. 10, https://www.britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-22/whistler-and-battersea

Nocturne in Blue and Silver : Lagoon in Venice (Art Reproduction), ART News, v. 44, November 1, 1945, p. 21, N1 A6 OVERSIZE (HAAS)

Nocturne in Blue and Silver, no. 1 (Art Reproduction), Art Quarterly, v. 10, 1947, p. 11?, J10 Ar81 + (LSF)

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Elizabeth Robins Pennell, The life of James McNeill Whistler, J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia London, 1911, pp. 161-67, NJ18 W57 P37 1911 (HAAS)

Dianne Hauserman Pilgrim, Revival of Pastels in Nineteenth Century America: The Society of Painters in Pastel, American Art Journal, vol. 10, November 1978, pp. 43-62, N6505 A618 (HAAS) Available online through JStor.

Marc SImpson, Like breath on glass, Whistler, Inness, and the art of painting softly , Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass. New Haven, 2008, pp. 112-3, pl. 1, NJ18 W57 S57 2008 (YCBA)

Robert Slifkin, James Whistler as the invisible man, anti-aestheticism and artistic vision , Oxford Art Journal, vol. 29, no. 1, March, 2006, p. 58, fig. 3, V 1671 (YCBA) Also available online (Orbis)

Honora Twycross, Japanese Pictures, English Illustrated Magazine, vol. 18, September 1904, p. 529, WD 9118 (LSF - Mudd)

Andrew McLaren Young, The paintings of James McNeill Whistler, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1980, no. 151 (v. 1), pl. 150 (v. 2), NJ18 W57 Y69 1980 (YCBA) +
Gallery Label:
In the 1870s, James McNeill Whistler exhibited a series of paintings depicting the Thames at night. He focused on the stretch of river in Battersea seen from his Chelsea home, a view dominated by the industrial buildings of Morgan’s Patent Plumbago Crucible Company (whose clock tower can be seen to the left of the canvas). The artist used a limited palette, thin layers of paint, and simple compositions inspired by Japanese woodblock prints. Originally referred to as "moonlights," Whistler responded to his patron Frederick Leyland’s suggestion that he retitle the paintings as "nocturnes," a phrase commonly associated with the music of Frédéric Chopin. Though first exhibited in 1878, Whistler did not add his famous butterfly signature to this painting until the early 1880s. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2020
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5065