Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea
- Artist: James McNeill Whistler
- Date: 1871
- Medium: Oil paint on wood
- Dimensions: support: 502 x 608 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
"This is “Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Chelsea” by James McNeill Whistler, painted in 1871. Whistler set his view from Battersea Bridge across the Thames to Chelsea. In the right hand he lets the old church tower peek out of the mist, while a low barge sits beside a fisherman who looks toward the water. The whole scene is wrapped in a palette of blues and silvers that gives it a quiet, almost musical glow.
It’s the first of Whistler’s nocturnes—a series where he tried to capture the Thames at dusk or night as if music were painted on canvas. The composition owes a lot to Japanese wood‑block prints: thin layers, economy of line, and a very small range of colours. He even marks his signature with the familiar butterfly motif in the lower centre.
The painting was made on panel (wood) primed dark grey, then layered carefully with oil pigment. Whistler signed it with a cartouche of ‘71’ at the bottom, and his own frame carries the same butterfly emblem.
So you’re looking at a quiet river tableau that mixes simple colour with careful detail—fisherman, barge, church tower—an early example of Whistler’s nocturnal calm.”
See it in person
Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
