Nocturne: the river at Battersea

When Whistler painted his first night scene of the river Thames in 1871, his friend and fellow artist Frederick Leyland suggested the title ‘nocturne’ for the work. The association between this name and music appealed to Whistler who noted, ‘A nocturne is an arrangement of line, form and colour first’. Whistler’s interest in the formal qualities of art are evident in the restrained palette and controlled use of details in his ‘nocturne’ works – a series of paintings and lithographs created in the 1870s. These works were based on Whistler’s drawings of the river, in particular the area between Battersea and Westminster, where he captured the activities of the men who worked on the boats and barges, docks and wharfs. Created in the studio, the series records the transformation of his keenly observed sketches into radically restrained compositions, in which a restricted palette is applied to suggest an atmosphere of tranquillity. Working directly onto the lithographic stone with ink, Whistler used a scraper to create reflections on the water.

Maria Zagala, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs