In the early 1870s James McNeill Whistler took a radical step toward abstraction with his Nocturnes series. In keeping with his art-for-art’s-sake creed, these works capture the stillness of evening while evoking the artistry of music. Unlike his earlier marine paintings, the subject of this work—an inlet along the English Channel near Southampton—is obscured by the approaching night. Large shipping vessels appear as ghostly shapes, reduced to shadowy forms by the deepening twilight, while the only points of brightness come from the subtle reflections of lights and the fragmented orb of the moon. The setting thus serves primarily as a vehicle for Whistler’s interest in the tonal harmonies of darkness.
Date
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Elisabeth L. Cary, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study with a Tentative List of the Artist’s Works (New York, 1907), no. 58, 165.
Bernhard Sickert, Whistler (London: Duckworth & Co., New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., n.d.), 145, no. 77, 161 (ill.).
Joseph and Elizabeth R. Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols. (London & Philadelphia, 1908), Vol. I, 167, Vol. II, ill. facing p. 108.
Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 3 (1910): 34.
James W. Lane, Whistler (New York, 1942), 112 (ill.).
Life Magazine 36 (May 17, 1954): 9–95, ill.
Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), 483.
Denys Sutton, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels, and Watercolors (London: Phaidon Press, 1966), 192, pl. 83.
Donald Holden, Whistler Landscapes and Seascapes (New York, 1969), 34–35, ill. p. 35, pl. 7.
Michael Edward Shapiro and Peter H. Hassrick, Frederic Remington, the Masterworks (Abrams, 1988), fig. 22, 49, ill.
Milo M. Naeve, “The Edwardian Era and Patrons of American Art at The Art Institute of Chicago: The Birth of a Tradition,” America’s International Exposition of Fine Arts and Antiques (Chicago: The Lakeside Group, 1988), fig. 2, 22, ill.
Tom Armstrong, “The New Field–McCormick Galleries in the Art Institute of Chicago, Magazine Antiques 134, 4 (October 1988), 822–835, discussed p. 834, pl. XII p. 830.
Judith A. Barter, et al., The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2011), cat. 13.
Leonard S. Marcus, Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing (Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2013), ill.
Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Highlights of the Collection, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2017), 62.
Yang Zhigang, ed., Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945, exh. cat. (Shanghai: Shanghai Book and Painting Press, 2018), cat. 17.
Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, “Nocturne: Blue and Gold-Southampton Water,” The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler: A Catalogue Raisonné, University of Glasgow, accessed June 3, 2020, https://whistlerpaintings.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/display/?mid=y117 (ill.).
Jay A. Clarke and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. 16 (ill.), http://artic.edu/digitalwhistler.
Probably London, Dudley Gallery, 1872, cat. 187, as Nocturne in Grey and Gold.
Possibly London, International Exhibition, 1873, cat. 1556, as Nocturne in Grey and Gold.
Possibly London, Pall Mall, Mr. Whistler’s Exhibition, 1874, cat. 10, as Nocturne in Grey and Gold.
London, Grosvenor Gallery, Summer Exhibition, May 1879, cat. 193, as Nocturne in Blue and Gold.
London, The Grosvenor Gallery, 1882, cat. 106.
Possibly Paris, Petit Palais, 1883, cat. 7 as Nocturne en bleu et or.
Possibly London, Goupil Gallery, 1898, cat. 25, as Nocturne—Blue and Gold.
Philadelphia, The Academy of Fine Arts, Late 1900 to about Mar. 1, 1901.
Boston, Copley Hall, Oil Paintings, Watercolors, Pastels, and Drawings. Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Feb. 1904, cat. 58.
London, The New Gallery, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the Late James McNeill Whistler, Feb. 22–Apr. 15, 1905, cat. 9.
Paris, Palais de L’Ecole des Beaux–Arts, Exposition des Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler, May 1905, cat. 67.
Cincinnati Art Museum, Seventeenth Annual Exhibition of American Art, May 21–July 20, 1910, cat. 210.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Lent from American Collections, June 1–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 489.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Landscape Paintings, May 14–Sept. 30, 1934, cat. 76.
Art Institute of Chicago, Summer Exhibitions, July 20–Oct. 29, 1939, cat. 4.
Art Gallery of Toronto, Loan Exhibition of Great Paintings in Aid of Allied Merchant Seamen, Feb. 5–Mar. 5, 1944, cat. 90.
New York, The William MacBeth Inc., Whistler Exhibition, Apr. 17–May 14, 1947, cat. 15.
Art Institute of Chicago, Cassatt, Sargent, and Whistler, Jan. 14–Feb. 25, 1954, cat. 116; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mar. 25–May 23.
Peoria, IL, Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, 1965, no catalogue numbers or page numbers but reproduced in black and white.
Art Institute of Chicago, James McNeill Whistler, Jan. 13, 1968–Feb. 25, 1968, cat. 20; Utica, NY, Munson–Williams–Proctor Institute, Mar. 17, 1968–Apr. 28, 1968.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art at The Time of the Centennial, June 19–Aug. 8, 1976, no catalogue or checklist published, as Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water.
Albi, France, Musée Toulouse–Lautrec, Trésors Impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, June 27–Aug. 31, 1980, Jean Devoisins, cat. 59.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, In Pursuit of Beauty, Americans and the Aesthetic Movement, Oct. 23, 1986–Jan. 11, 1987, Doreen Bolger Burke, et al., fig. 9.20, ill. p. 333.
Nagaoka, Japan, Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Masterworks of Modern Art from the Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 20–May 29, 1994; Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, June 10–July 24; Yokohama Museum of Art, Aug. 6–Sept. 25, 1994.
London, Tate Gallery, James McNeill Whistler, Oct. 13, 1994–Jan. 8, 1995, Richard Dorment and Margaret F. MacDonald, cat. no. 48, ill. p. 125; Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Feb. 6–Apr. 30, 1995; Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, May 28–Aug. 20, 1995.
Art Institute of Chicago, Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, June 6–Aug. 30, 1998; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, Oct. 2, 1998–Jan. 3, 1999.
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris Proust, Nov. 9, 1999–Feb. 2, 2000.
Atlanta, High Museum of Art, After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, Nov. 22, 2003–Feb. 8, 2004, p. 106, ill.; Detroit Institute of Arts, Mar. 13–June 6, 2004.
Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Turner Whistler Monet: Impressionist Visions, June 12–Sept. 12, 2004, Katherine Lochnan, no. 44, ill.; Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Oct. 12, 2004–Jan. 17, 2005; London, Tate Britain, Feb. 10–May 15, 2005.
Art Institute of Chicago, Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions, June 20, 2015–Sept. 27, 2015, online catalog.
Art Institute of Chicago, Whistler’s Mother: An American Icon Returns to Chicago, Mar. 4–May 21, 2017, no cat.
Shanghai Museum, Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865–1945, Sept. 28, 2018–Jan. 6, 2019, cat. 17.
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