1878
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Nocturne is a 1878 by James McNeill Whistler, a Impressionism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This painting depicts a serene nighttime scene, with a dark silhouette of a building in the background and a body of water in the foreground. The artist has used a range of grays to create a sense of depth and atmosphere. In the foreground, the water is calm and reflective, with a few subtle ripples disturbing its surface. The building in the background is shrouded in darkness, with only a few hints of its structure visible. The use of chiaroscuro, a technique that uses strong contrasts between light and dark to create a sense of volume and depth, adds to the overall mood of the painting. To learn more about this technique, explore the world of chiaroscuro.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom.
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