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James McNeill Whistler
Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water

A sparsely painted waterside scene in dark tones with minimal ghostly shapes suggesting ships, yellow glitches of paint for light reflections, and the orb of an orange moon overhead.

Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water

James McNeill Whistler · 1872

View at the AIC ↗

Palette

Iron
49% of the image
Grey · text contrast 7.5:1

Smoke
23% of the image
Grey · text contrast 6.2:1

Pewter
10% of the image
Grey · text contrast 5.1:1

Taupe
8% of the image
Grey · text contrast 5.6:1

Graphite
5% of the image
Grey · text contrast 8.9:1

Warm grey
5% of the image
Grey · text contrast 4.4:1

Colours measured by this site from the museum image (k-means in CIELAB). Names are the nearest in our own list and describe how the colour looks, not the pigment. Text on each chip uses whichever of black or white contrasts more (WCAG ratio shown). How

Details

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1872
Type: Painting
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 51 × 76.7 cm (20 1/16 × 30 3/16 in.)
Place: London
Period: Impressionism · Early Modernism · 19th century
Themes: Landscapes · Night and moonlight
Main colour: Grey · lightness 39, colourfulness 6

Art Institute of Chicago, Stickney Fund. Museum record. Public domain: the museum's is_public_domain field read true when we last checked (2026-10-25); image released under CC0. Licence rules