Titles

Suggested titles are as follows:

• 'Nocturne' (1891, Whistler). 1
• 'Nocturne Grey & Gold. Battersea' (1892, Whistler). 2
• 'Nocturne Westminster' (1904/1905, C. L. Freer). 3
• 'Nocturne in Blue' (1945, Frick Art Reference Library). 4
• 'Nocturne' (1980, YMSM). 5

The title 'Nocturne' has been retained as preferable, since there is some doubt as to the site.

Description

Nocturne, The White House, Washington DC

A dark night scene, in horizontal format. Across a broad river are the shadowy outlines of buildings, some with lights reflecting in the river. To left of centre there is a building with a tall tower that has a light at the top, casting a long column of light across the water.

Site

The strange silhouette of the clocktower, or lighthouse, in the centre is unlike that in any other nocturne.

It has been suggested that it is Battersea, as seen across the Thames from Chelsea. One scholar wrote that the 'peculiar tower is probably "Morgan's Folly," a 100-foot clock tower built in 1862 ... The color in this mystery of blue and black shifts as we watch. ... This color abstraction ... astonishes the viewer with an illusion of moonglow-fog gliding over the water. The only fixed point is the exclamation mark tower and its tangible reflection.' 6