James McNeill Whistler

Nocturne in Black and Gold:
The Falling Rocket

Photograph ©1988 Detroit Institute of the Arts.
Date c. 1875
Materials Oil on wood
Dimensions 60.3 cm x 46.6 cm
Marks None
Further information James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. www.dia.org
Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1980 (170, plate 153).

Note This painting was at the centre of a public scandal and libel trial, after the art critic John Ruskin accused Whistler of throwing “a pot of paint” in the public’s face. To Ruskin this painting appeared to be unfinished. However, Whistler wanted to suggest something of the nature and excitement of the fireworks in his free brushwork. The eye is drawn to follow the dramatic path the rockets would take. The bright swirl of paint in the centre suggests the initial launch of the fireworks, and the bright spots of colour and golden flecks suggest their explosion and dying fall. Whistler enjoyed depicting night scenes when the city of London with its dirt and poverty was hidden and when ordinary objects took on a new poetic character. There are some figures painted in the foreground but they are faint and ghostly in appearance, giving the painting a dream-like quality.