Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket
James McNeill Whistler · Symbolism & Art Nouveau
- Artist
- James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
- Date
- c. 1875
- Dimensions
- 60.3 x 46.7 cm
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Location
- Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, United States
The Falling Rocket shows a fireworks display at night in the Cremorne Gardens, a London pleasure park on the Thames. Out of a misty darkness, sparks of gold drift down from a burst rocket, above faint figures watching on the ground.
A closer look
Whistler reduced the scene almost to pure atmosphere: thin layers of dark blue-green and black, flicked with dots and splashes of yellow and orange. He gave his pictures musical titles such as “nocturne” and “symphony” to stress that painting, like music, could be about harmony of colour and form rather than telling a story. To many Victorian viewers this looked unfinished, even like a hoax.
