Nocturne: Blue and Gold — Old Battersea Bridge

James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)

c.1872-75

Oil on canvas

Support: 683 x 512 mm; frame: 922 x 760 x 83 mm

Tate Britain, Accession N01959

Presented by the Art Fund, 1905

Kindly made available for non-commercial use on the CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives) licence. Commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee

The term "nocturne" originated not with Whistler himself, but with the Pre-Raphaelites' patron, Frederick Leyland, who sensed the musical associations of these moonlit scenes. [Mouse over the text for links. The commentary continues below.]