Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge
James McNeill Whistler, 1872
Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge is one of the night views James McNeill Whistler painted along the Thames in London. It shows the old wooden Battersea Bridge seen from the water, with Chelsea Old Church on the left and the Albert Bridge on the right. Blue dominates: the sky and the river share closely related shades, and the browns and golds of the bridge, cooler than usual, sit comfortably within that harmony. A boat and a lone figure appear on the water; in the distance, lit windows and a scatter of fireworks in the upper right suggest an uncertain hour, perhaps dawn or late at night. Whistler exaggerated the height of the bridge and worked with quick, fleeting effects of light that give the scene a hazy atmosphere. The exact date remains uncertain, and the painting figured in the 1878 libel case Whistler brought against the critic John Ruskin. Since 1905 it has belonged to the Tate and now hangs in Tate Britain.
- Painter
- James McNeill Whistler
- Date
- 1872
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 51 × 68 cm
- Museum
- Tate, London
- Genre
- landscape painting
- Depicts
- Battersea Bridge
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