2: Whistler's Nocturnes

[Click image for larger version.]

James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket, 1875
Oil on panel, w46.4 cm x h60.3 cm (18.3" x 23.7")
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI USA
https://everydayartcritique.blogspot.com/2017/10/sunset-grove.html

The promised abstract landscape, by Whistler (he of 'Whistler's mother' fame, although that is not the name). 

This painting 'depicts' a night-time fireworks display in a well-known park/pleasure garden in London. With work like this, Whistler was intentionally moving away from narrative imagery, trying instead to show a single moment (or better yet, the experience of a moment), broken down into something truly visual that could not be copied into any other medium. The name is meant to boost this impression; he borrowed the term 'nocturne' from music, and named a lot of his work with such musical references, trying to demonstrate that the balance and harmony of the composition was the actual subject.

Whistler, by the way, had an impeccable eye for detail (i.e. was obsessive and fudging finicky), and he created damn good work because of it. You'll see him again at some point for his figurative work, which I think of frequently.