Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach
James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903)
1863
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 50.8 × 68.6 cm (20 × 27 in.)
- Culture
- London
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Gift of Honoré and Potter Palmer
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
James McNeill Whistler painted marine scenes throughout his career, including this depiction of the Thames River, which was a frequent subject in Whistler’s work when he lived in London. Here, he focused on the river’s industrial elements: boats and barges, laboring men, and smoking chimneys. Whistler unified the composition with deft brushwork and a subtle palette of brown and gray that anticipated his later interest in delicate tonal harmonies. The painting’s bold realism and thickly painted surface were inspired by French artist Gustave Courbet, whose work Whistler encountered during his stays in Paris in the mid-1850s and 1860s.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
