# Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water

- By: James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903)
- Date: 1872
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 51 × 76.7 cm (20 1/16 × 30 3/16 in.)
- Culture: London
- Credit line: Stickney Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/56905)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/50034c7f-ce51-00f1-430e-a6f7efc233fc/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

In the early 1870s James McNeill Whistler took a radical step toward abstraction with his Nocturnes series. In keeping with his art-for-art’s-sake creed, these works capture the stillness of evening while evoking a connection to music. Unlike his earlier marine paintings, the subject of this work—an inlet along the English Channel near Southampton—is obscured by the approaching night. Large shipping vessels appear as ghostly shapes, reduced to shadowy forms by the deepening twilight, while the only points of brightness come from the subtle reflections of lights and the fragmented orb of the moon. The setting thus serves primarily as a vehicle for Whistler’s interest in the harmonies of muted color amid darkness.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0