James McNeill Whistler - Nocturne, Grey and Gold 1874
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Nocturne, Grey and Gold 1874
62x47cm oil/canvas
The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, UK
<< Previous G a l l e r y Next >>
From The Burrell Collection, Glasgow:
Whistler said of this painting that it represented “a very warm summer night on the Thames”. For him, painting was the ‘poetry of sight’ and he saw himself as the composer of his paintings. Whistler deliberately gave his paintings titles used in musical composition such as ‘nocturne’, ‘harmony’ and ‘symphony’. He did this to draw attention to the carefully balanced colour combinations he had used in the paintings instead of their subject matter. When Nocturne: Grey and Gold Westminster Bridge was exhibited in 1875, some reviewers remarked that the work was glazed like a watercolour. This technique of thinning oil paint to a runny consistency and applying it to the canvas in many thin layers was Whistler’s own invention.