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

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Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Fish Shop

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

  • 'Nocturne in grey and gold – Chelsea Fish Shop' (1886, Dowdeswell). 1
  • 'Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Fish Shop' (1980, YMSM). 2

'Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Fish Shop' is the preferred form of the title.

Description

The Saturday Review on 22 May 1886 described it as 'a supposed rendering of lights on a foggy night.' The description in the Magazine of Art suggests the colour was basically brown but does not otherwise help to identify it: 'The dark brown fog ... though it ... represents nothing, sounds as it were, the fundamental bass of the chord in a low octave.' 3

Site

Chelsea, London, UK.

Street in Old Chelsea, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Street in Old Chelsea, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Maunder's Fish shop in Chelsea – which could have been the subject – appears in several of Whistler's prints and paintings including Street in Old Chelsea [YMSM 249].

Notes:

1: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 65).

2: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 336).

3: Magazine of Art May 1886 [more], at p. xxxi.

Last updated: 14th November 2020 by Margaret