In the early 1870s, James McNeill Whistler created a series of nearly abstract riverscapes that he called "nocturnes," in reference not only to their evening subjects but also to the harmonious musical compositions bearing the same name. Having abandoned his youthful adherence to Realism, Whistler now insisted that a painting should be an interpretation, rather than a literal depiction, of nature. Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water exemplifies this aim. While it does represent an actual site—an inlet of the English Channel about eighty miles southwest of London—mood and atmosphere dominate, established by a subtle palette of blues and grays illuminated with touches of gold.

Victorian art critics responded to Whistler’s nocturnes with incomprehension and even hostility. At this time, people generally valued works of art according to the amount of labor and ambition involved in their production; they were unprepared for the revolutionary idea that aesthetic considerations could take precedence over realistic observation. Even Whistler’s title was provocative in its rejection of representation. He 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 color. The picture is throughout a problem that I attempt to solve. I make use of any means, any incident or object in nature, that will bring about this symmetrical result." In his nocturnes, Whistler made a significant break with tradition, positing a new relationship between the artist and nature, and pointing the way toward nonobjective art. Mood is the work’s true subject; tones and shades translate Whistler’s nuanced perceptual experience of a specific scene into a two-dimensional pattern of paint on canvas.