Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water

James McNeill Whistler

1872

Oil on canvas

Art Institute of Chicago

A sparsely painted waterside scene in dark tones with minimal ghostly shapes suggesting ships, yellow glitches of paint for light reflections, and the orb of an orange moon overhead. Whistler's 1872 oil on canvas, Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water, is a painting.