James McNeill Whistler and Chopin - Nocturne

Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge. Oil on Canvas (1872), Tate Britain, London, England

Like Kandinsky, James McNeil Whistler also titled his paintings after musical pieces. Some of his titles include “arrangements”, “harmonies”, “symphony”, and “nocturnes.” When asked why he chose these musical terms for the titles of his paintings, Whistler responded with, “[Art] should be independent of all clap-trap—should stand alone and appeal to the artistic sense of ear or eye, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like. All these have no kind of concern with it, and that is why I insist on calling my works “arrangements” and “harmonies” (qtd. in Sayre). Whistler’s nocturnes were often night scenes of the water with blue or light green color palettes. Fireworks often played a part in the skies of Whistler’s nocturnes. Not everyone felt that Whistler’s nocturnes were aesthetically beautiful. John Ruskin, a well known art critic, wrote that Whistler had “[flung] a pot of paint in the public’s face” (qtd. in Sayre). This statement resulted in a trial and a few mudslinging insults. Musically, a nocturne is “a slow, dreamy genre of piano music that suggests moonlit nights, romantic longing, and a certain wistful melancholy, all evoked through bittersweet melodies and softly strumming harmonies” Chopin was known for composing beautiful Nocturnes. Although Whistler may not have been inspired directly by any of Chopin’s nocturnes, his paintings appear to draw on the same ideas of slow, dreamy, and melancholy scenes. As you listen to Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 27 No.1. in C sharp Minor, compare it with Whistler’s Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge. 

Chopin uses rolling chords in the base clef to produce a strumming movement that sustains the melancholy melody of the treble clef. The very first note of the melody creates tension with its shift to a major key. This dissonance quickly resolves in the next note, but the tension stays throughout the piece. Whistler’s painting, with its grey-blue coloring also evokes a sense of melancholy. As Chopin’s traveling base chords, the boat appears to be slowly moving through the water and under the bridge. In the midst of Chopin’s peaceful nocturne, a sense of joy and excitement bursts forth as the notes shift to a major key and the piece becomes louder. Similarly, in Whistler’s painting, a flash of yellow fireworks lights up the blue dismal sky. Viewing the painting as merely an image of the Thames, Whistler’s Nocturne appears bleak and painterly, but looking at it through the musical aspect  and language of Chopin’s Nocturnes, Whistler’s piece gains a new meaning and evocation of emotion.