Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903)
Nocturne: blue and gold, St. Mark’s, Venice
1880
Oil on canvas, 75.4 x 90.5 cm
National Museum Wales, Cardiff
Following his bankruptcy in 1879, Whistler spent a year in Venice where he concentrated on etchings and pastels. Only three oil paintings, produced largely from memory in the evenings, survive from this visit. This unconventional view includes the Torre’ del Orologio at the left. The southernmost portal of St. Mark’s is cut off at the right. The intense points of white light are gas lamps. Whistler once observed that this work was the best of his nocturnes. Gwendoline Davies purchased it in 1912. (NMW)