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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/james-abbott-mcneill-whistler-598" aria-label="More by James Abbott McNeill Whistler" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">James Abbott McNeill Whistler</a>
Nocturne Blue and Gold  Old Battersea Bridge
Presented by the Art Fund 1905
adults
architecture
Battersea, Old Battersea Bridge
boat, punt
bridge
bridges and viaducts
England
evening
figure
fine art and design, named works
Hiroshige, ‘Moonlight at Ryogoko’
lifestyle and culture
musical analogy
natural phenomena
objects
people
places
reflection
river
River Thames
society
times of the day
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
transport: water
UK countries and regions
UK London
UK natural features
water: inland
waterfront
<p>Whistler preferred the calm of the River Thames at night compared to the noise and bustle of the day. Setting off on a boat at twilight, he sometimes stayed on the river all night, sketching and memorising the scene. He would later paint from memory in his studio. Here, London’s Battersea Bridge can be seen in the foreground. Chelsea Church and the lights of the newly-built Albert Bridge are visible in the distance. Whistler explained ‘I did not intend to paint a portrait of the bridge, but only a painting of a moonlight scene ... My whole scheme was only to bring about a certain harmony of colour’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
2002-10-11
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2002-10-11
Whistler Sargent and Steer - Frist
Tate partnerships & programmes
5 May 2003 – 13 April 2004
2004-04-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-05-05
London: Modern City
Collection based display
23 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
23 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
2003-10-23
Hayward Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.hayward-gallery.org.uk
2003-10-23
National Art Collections Fund: Centenary Exhibition 2003
Loan-out
15 May 2004 – 16 May 2005
2005-05-16
15 May 2004 – 5 September 2004
2004-09-05
2004-05-15
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
16 October 2004 – 16 January 2005
2005-01-16
2004-10-16
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
10 February 2005 – 16 May 2005
2005-05-16
2005-02-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-05-15
Turner Whistler Monet
Exhibition
19 December 2005 – 13 November 2006
2006-11-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-12-19
J. A. M. Whistler
Collection based display
6 December 2006 – 4 June 2007
2007-06-04
6 December 2006 – 15 February 2007
2007-02-15
2006-12-06
State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
State Russian Museum (St Petersburg, Russia)
http://www.rusmuseum.ru
2006-12-06
Whistler: Russian Suite
Loan-out
19 July 2008 – 1 February 2009
2009-02-01
19 July 2008 – 12 October 2008
2008-10-12
2008-07-19
Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.royalscottishacademy.org
2008-07-19
Impressionism and Scotland
Loan-out
30 January 2009 – 15 April 2009
2009-04-15
30 January 2009 – 19 April 2009
2009-04-19
2009-01-30
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA)
2009-01-30
The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia 1860-1989
Loan-out
8 October 2010 – 10 January 2011
2011-01-10
8 October 2010 – 10 January 2011
2011-01-10
2010-10-08
Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery (Glasgow, UK)
http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk
2010-10-08
Blue and Silver
Loan-out
2 April 2011 – 17 June 2012
2012-06-17
2 April 2011 – 17 July 2011
2011-07-17
2011-04-02
Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK)
http://www.vam.ac.uk
12 September 2011 – 15 January 2012
2012-01-15
2011-09-12
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
18 February 2012 – 17 June 2012
2012-06-17
2012-02-18
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.famsf.org
2011-04-02
The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900
Loan-out
16 October 2013 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
16 October 2013 – 12 January 2014
2014-01-12
2013-10-16
Dulwich Picture Gallery (London, UK)
1 February 2014 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
2014-02-01
Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, USA)
2 May 2014 – 17 August 2014
2014-08-17
2014-05-02
Freer Gallery of Art (Washington, USA)
13 September 2014 – 16 November 2014
2014-11-16
2014-09-13
National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto, Japan)
6 December 2014 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
2014-12-06
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
2013-10-16
Whistler's Bridge
Loan-out
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
13 September 2014 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
13 September 2014 – 16 November 2014
2014-11-16
2014-09-13
National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto, Japan)
6 December 2014 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
2014-12-06
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
2014-09-13
James McN. Whistler Retrospective
Loan-out
11 May 2016 – 25 September 2016
2016-09-25
11 May 2016 – 25 September 2016
2016-09-25
2016-05-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-05-11
Painting with Light: Art and Photography from the Pre-Raphaelites to the modern age
Exhibition
2 November 2017 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
2 November 2017 – 7 May 2018
2018-05-07
2017-11-02
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
21 June 2018 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
2018-06-21
Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Paris, France)
2017-11-02
Impressionists in London: French Artists in Exile, 1870-1904
Exhibition
2 November 2017 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
20 June 2018 – 14 October 2018
2018-10-14
2018-06-20
Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Paris, France)
2017-11-02
Impressionists in London: French Artists in Exile, 1870 - 1904
Loan-out
23 November 2018 – 24 March 2019
2019-03-24
23 November 2018 – 24 March 2019
2019-03-24
2018-11-23
Wallraf Richartz Museum (Cologne, Germany)
2018-11-23
Once Upon a Time in America
Loan-out
8 May 2023 – 5 May 2025
2025-05-05
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-05-08
Gallery 6
Collection based display
Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge
support: 683 × 512 mm
frame: 922 × 760 × 83 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1905
<p>This is one of Whistler's most controversial works and was produced as 'evidence' in the famous Whistler-Ruskin trial of 1878. It is the fifth in a series of Nocturnes, produced during the 1870s. Whistler's aim in these works was to convey a sense of the beauty and tranquility of the Thames by night. It was Frederick Leyland who first used the name 'nocturne' to describe these moonlit scenes, suggesting the concept of evening, or night, but with musical associations. The expression was quickly adopted by Whistler, who later explained,
<br/></p>
<blockquote>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, <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a></blockquote>
<p> and colour first (quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122).</p>
<p>
<br/>The central motif is Battersea Bridge, with Chelsea Church and the lights of the newly-built Albert Bridge visible in the distance. There are fireworks in the sky and one rocket ascends as another falls in sparks. Possibly inspired by Hiroshige's <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/woodcut" title="Glossary definition for 'Woodcut'"><span>woodcut</span></a></p>
<p> <i>Moonlight at Ryogoko</i> of 1857, which includes a similar tall structure, Whistler intentionally exaggerated the height of the bridge. As the artist himself stated at the Ruskin trial, 'I did not intend to paint a <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a></p>
<p> of the bridge, but only a <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a></p>
<p> of a moonlight scene...My whole scheme was only to bring about a certain harmony of colour' (quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.131).
<br/>
<br/>Whistler preferred the calm of the river at night to the noise and bustle of the Thames by day. With the Greaves brothers as his oarsmen, he would set off at twilight and sometimes remain on the river all night, sketching and memorising the scene. He never painted his<i> Nocturnes</i> on the spot, but rather from memory in his studio, employing a special <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>medium</span></a></p>
<p> devised for painting swiftly in oils. He thinned his paint with copal, turpentine and linseed oil, creating what he called a 'sauce', which he applied in thin, transparent layers, wiping it away until he was satisfied.
<br/>
<br/>In 1876 Whistler exhibited the picture as <i>Nocturne in Blue and Silver No.5</i>, but by 1892 had given it its present title. When it appeared at the first Grosvenor Gallery exhibition in 1877 Oscar Wilde wrote that it was 'worth looking at for about as long as one looks at a real rocket, that is, for somewhat less than a quarter of a minute' (quoted in Dorment and MacDonald 1994, p.130). The painting was bought by William Graham and was later included in the Graham sale at Christie's in 1886. When it came up for auction it was hissed by the general public.
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Richard Dorment and Margaret F. MacDonald, <i>James McNeill Whistler</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1994, no.54, pp.130-1, reproduced in colour p.54.
<br/>James McNeill Whistler, <i>The Gentle Art of Making Enemies</i>, 1892, reproduced in Robin Spencer, <i>Whistler - A Retrospective</i>, New York 1989, pp.128-133, reproduced in colour p.139.
<br/>Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer with the assistance of Hamish Miles, <i>The Paintings of James MacNeill Whistler</i>, New Haven and London, 1980, no.140, reproduced in colour plate 109.
<br/>
<br/>Frances Fowle
<br/>December 2000
<br/></p>

Summary
2011-05-18T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Whistler preferred the calm of the River Thames at night compared to the noise and bustle of the day. Setting off on a boat at twilight, he sometimes stayed on the river all night, sketching and memorising the scene. He would later paint from memory in his studio. Here, London’s Battersea Bridge can be seen in the foreground. Chelsea Church and the lights of the newly-built Albert Bridge are visible in the distance. Whistler explained ‘I did not intend to paint a portrait of the bridge, but only a painting of a moonlight scene ... My whole scheme was only to bring about a certain harmony of colour’.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2019-04-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
adults architecture Battersea, Old Battersea Bridge boat, punt bridge bridges and viaducts England evening figure fine art and design, named works Hiroshige, ‘Moonlight at Ryogoko’ lifestyle and culture musical analogy natural phenomena objects people places reflection river River Thames society times of the day townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features transport: water UK countries and regions UK London UK natural features waterfront water: inland