Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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Nocturne in Blue and Silver

Catalogues Raisonnés

  • Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 113), plate 107, as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver.

Authored by Whistler

  • Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890, p. 8.
  • Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 9).

Catalogues 1855-1905

  • Possibly exhibited in [Exposition], Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1873 or Mr Whistler's Exhibition, Flemish Gallery, 48 Pall Mall, London, 1874.
  • I Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1877 (cat. no. 5) as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver'.
  • Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 9) as 'Nocturne. Blue and Silver'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

  • Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Morning Post, London, 1 May 1877, p. 6.
  • Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 2 May 1877, p. 7.
  • Taylor, Tom, 'The Grosvenor Gallery', The Graphic, London, 12 May 1877.
  • Anon., New York Semi-Weekly Tribune, New York, 27 November 1878.

NOTE: See Merrill, Linda, A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trial in 'Whistler v. Ruskin', Washington and London, 1992 for a summary of accounts of the Whistler v. Ruskin trial in 1878.

Journals 1855-1905

  • None.

Monographs

  • None.

Books on Whistler

  • Duret, Théodore, Histoire de J. McN. Whistler et de son oeuvre, Paris, 1904, wood engraving repr. p. 59 (omitting butterfly and cartouche).
  • Lechien, Isabelle Enaud, James Whistler: Le peintre et le polémiste, Paris, 1995, pp. 60-65, repr. p. 63.
  • MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 8.
  • Merrill, Linda, A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trial in 'Whistler v. Ruskin', Washington and London, 1992, pp. 36, 108, 126, 142-43, 151-52, 160, 172-73, 177, 233, 360 n.16, 367 n.48, 368 n.49, 372 n. 6, repr. pl. 4.
  • Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, p. 126, repr. fig. 3.9.
  • Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 211-12, 234, 239-40, repr. p. 236 as 'Nocturne in Blue and Silver, No. I'.
  • Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 103, repr. f.p. 120.
  • Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, pp. 179, 181, 250.
  • Prideaux, Tom, The World of Whistler, New York, 1970, p. 109.
  • Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 45), p. 156.
  • Spencer, Robin (ed.), Whistler: A Retrospective, New York, 1989, pp. 130, 138, repr. pl. 41.
  • Spencer, Robin, Whistler, New York, 1990, pp. 78-79.
  • Spink, Nesta R., Harriet K. Stratis, and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, (gen. eds, Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi), 2 vols., Chicago, 1998, repr. vol. 1, p. 44, fig. 8.
  • Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, p. 60, repr. f.p. 60.
  • Weintraub, Stanley, Whistler: A Biography, London, 1974, p. 143.

Books, General

  • Casteras, Susan P., and Colleen Denney, The Grosvenor Gallery: A Palace of Art in Victorian England, New Haven, 1996, repr. fig. 52, p. 97.
  • Colbert, Charles, Haunted Visions: Spiritualism and American Art, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2011, pp. 140-52, repr. p. 141, fig. 44.
  • Newall, Christopher, The Grosvenor Gallery Exhibitions: Change and Continuity in the Victorian Art World, Cambridge, 1995, p. 135.
  • Prettejohn, Elizabeth, Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 176-80.
  • Wilmerding, John, Signs of the Artist: Signatures and Self-expression in American Paintings, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2003, p. 123, fig. 98.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

  • Burgard, Timothy Anglin, American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, 1994, pp. 4, 5, 11, fig. 4 (cat. no. 34).
  • Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press, Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008, p. 398-99 (cat. no. 429), repr. p. 399.
  • Wolohojian, Stephan, ed., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, 2008, repr. p. 162.

EXHIBITION:

  • Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Prints by James McNeill Whistler, courtesy of the Henderson Family of New Orleans, Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, 1937.
  • Rowland, Jr., Benjami, Real and Ideal in American Art, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, Summer 1948 (cat. no. 24).
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, 1972 (cat. no. 92).
  • Jones, Caroline A., Modern Art at Harvard: The Formation of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, 1985, repr p. 54, fig. 46.
  • Modern Art at Harvard, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1985-1986.
  • American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1994.
  • The Persistence of Memory: Continuity and Change in American Cultures, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 1995-2001.
  • Chikashi Kitazaki (ed.), Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Ueno, Japan, 2002, pp. 218-19 (cat. no. 68), repr.
  • Riopelle, Christopher, Harvard's Winthrop Collection: Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, National Gallery, London, 2003, p. 43 (cat. no. 30), repr.
  • Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, p. 69, repr. fig. 60 (not exhibited).
  • Wolohojian, Stephan, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir ... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 2003, pp. 482-83 (cat. no. 212), repr.
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2003; National Gallery, London, 2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003-2004.
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 2004.
  • Siewert, John, 'Art, music, and an aesthetics of place in Whistler's Nocturne paintings' in Lochnan, Katharine, Turner, Whistler, Monet, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Tate Britain, London, 2004-2005, pp. 141-47, at p. 142, repr. fig. 51 (not exhibited).
  • Brock, Charles, Charles Sheeler: Across Media, National Gallery of Art/University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, 2006, p. 15, fig. 7.
  • Simpson, Marc, Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 2008, pp. 4, 8-9, repr. p. 5.
  • Dixon, Christine, Ron Radford, and Lucina Ward, Turner to Monet: The Triumph of Landscape Painting, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2008, p. 35, repr. fig 18.
  • Re-View: Western Art from 1560 to 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, MA, 2008-2011.
  • Ancient to Modern, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, 2012-2013.
  • 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, 2014.

Journals 1906-Present

  • Richardson, Edgar P., ' "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket" by Whistler', The Art Quarterly, Winter 1947, pp. 2-11, repr. p. 11.
  • Pyne, Kathleen, 'Whistler and the Politics of the Urban Picturesque', American Art, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, 1994, vol. 8, pp. 61-77, at p. 74, repr.
  • Laurence, Madeline, 'L'art de se faire des ennemis', Beaux Arts Magazine, January 1995, pp. 50-51, repr. p. 50.
  • Siewert, John, 'Suspended Spectacle: Whistler's Falling Rocket and the Nocturnal Subject', Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Institute of Arts Founders Society, Detroit, MI, 1995, vol. 69, nos. 1/2, pp. 37-48, p. 38.
  • Tedeschi, Martha, 'Whistler and the English Print Market', Print Quarterly, London, March 1997, vol. 14, no. 1, p. 9.

Websites

  • Harvard Art Museums website at http://www.harvardartmuseums.org.

Unpublished

  • Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 69) 'Nocturne, bleu et argent / Nocturne, blue and silve No:1 / Nocturne in blue and silver'.

Other

  • None.

Last updated: 13th May 2021 by Margaret