Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket, 1875
James McNeill Whistler
Oil paint on panel · 60.3 x 46.4 cm
Fireworks scatter as smudges of paint over a near-abstract night sky.
Whistler dissolves a firework display over the Thames into drifting sparks and darkness — art as pure mood and tone. When a critic called it flinging paint in the public's face, Whistler sued, staking a famous claim for art's own freedom.
What you're looking at
The paint is barely there. Whistler thinned it almost to a wash, dragged it across the panel and flicked the sparks on top in a few seconds of wet gold, so most of the surface is the panel showing through. There are figures on the near bank at the bottom edge, though only just. Ruskin said he was flinging a pot of paint in the public's face; Whistler sued, won, and was awarded a farthing, which ruined him.
On a Frame TV
About 3:4, so the matted file. This is the darkest work in the collection by some distance and it depends on that — magnificent on a Frame in an unlit room, and an almost featureless black rectangle in daylight.
Detroit Institute of Arts · Visit it in Detroit →
- 4K master file (3840px+)
- Samsung Frame TV–ready crop
- Phone wallpaper crop
- Printable art card
Public domain · one .zip, no sign-up
More like this
Other works in the collection, starting with James McNeill Whistler.
