Interpretive Resource

A celebrated spokesman for the "aesthetic" movement in art, James McNeill Whistler insisted that the primary task of the painter is to present a harmonious arrangement of color and form on a flat surface rather than to depict a familiar or narrative subject. To underscore this approach, as well as the close relationship the artist believed exists between art and music, he shocked the public by titling his paintings "Arrangements," "Symphonies," and "Nocturnes."

Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water is one of the first compositions to which Whistler gave such an appellation. Writing to thank his patron Frederick Leyland for suggesting this term to him, Whistler enthused: "I say I can’t thank you too much for the name ‘Nocturne’ as a title for my moonlights! You have no idea what an irritation it proves to the critics and consequent pleasure to me—besides, it is really so charming and does so poetically say all I want to say and no more than I wish." Thus, rather than emphasizing here the ships one can discern in an inlet, Whistler was more interested in the mood created by a specific time of day (a moonlit night) and the dominant color harmony (blue and gold). In fact he relegated the ships to either side of the composition, creating a kind of visual frame for the tranquil expanse of water and sky at the painting’s center.