Nocturne

Whistler painted Nocturne between 1879 and 1880, during the years when he was developing the series of night paintings that would become his most famous works. He was in his mid-forties, living in London, and recovering from his disastrous libel suit against the critic John Ruskin, who had accused him of 'flinging a pot of paint in the public's face.' The lawsuit had bankrupted Whistler, and he was painting at a furious rate to pay his debts. The painting shows a night scene on the Thames, with the river and the sky merging into a single field of dark blue and gray. The buildings on the far bank are barely visible, reduced to dark shapes against the sky. A few lights flicker on the water, painted as small dots of warm yellow. The composition is almost abstract: there is no horizon line, no foreground, no background. The viewer is looking into a field of color and light, with the forms of the city suggested rather than described. Whistler invented the Nocturne as a genre. He painted his first night scenes in the 1870s, working from a boat on the Thames, and he gave them musical titles: Nocturne, Symphony, Arrangement. The titles were deliberate: Whistler believed that painting should be like music, concerned with harmony and atmosphere rather than with narrative and description. The Nocturnes are the most radical expression of this belief. They reduce the landscape to its essential elements: color, light, and atmosphere. The Nocturnes were the subject of the Ruskin trial. In 1877, Ruskin had seen Whistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket at the Grosvenor Gallery and written that Whistler was 'flinging a pot of paint in the public's face.' Whistler sued for libel and won, but he was awarded only a farthing in damages, and he was bankrupted by the legal costs. The trial was a defining moment in the history of art: it pitted the Victorian belief that art should be morally serious and carefully finished against the Aesthetic belief that art should be beautiful and expressive, regardless of subject or finish. Oil on canvas, 50 by 75 centimeters. Whistler painted with thin, translucent layers, building the night sky in layers of dark blue and gray, applied in broad, horizontal strokes. The lights on the water are painted in small, thick dots of warm yellow, which sit on the surface of the canvas like stars. The buildings on the far bank are painted in dark, blurry strokes that dissolve into the sky. The surface has the smooth, worked quality of a painting built over many sessions, with the layers of color creating a sense of depth and atmosphere. The horizontal format and cool palette make this print work well in a living room, bedroom, or any room with low light. The blues, grays, and warm yellows pair with white walls, dark furniture, and rooms with a calm or contemplative mood. The 18x24 size is the best choice, as the composition needs width to read. The painting has a quiet, meditative quality that suits rooms where people rest or think. The painting entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington as a gift from Mr. and Mrs. J. Watson Webb. This is a public domain artwork, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The image is released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed.