Relationships

James McNeill Whistler

Nocturne: Blue and Silver—Battersea Reach

1870–75

Oil on canvas, 49.9 × 72.3 cm. National Museum of Asian Art (Freer Gallery of Art), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Moored barges and a far shore of chimneys dissolve into a haze of gray, faintly blue-green. Nearly the whole river at night is held in a single hue.

• The title itself names the scheme: blue and silver.
• Thin, fluid blue went over a brown underlayer on rough canvas; later reworking left the surface grayer than it began.
• The only breaks are tiny dots of warmer color for the lamps along the far shore and their glints on the water.

Concepts

• Monochromatic

Image: Smithsonian Open Access · CC0