Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket

Fireworks over a London pleasure garden

Cremorne Gardens, on the Thames at Chelsea, was a popular London pleasure garden with music, dancing and firework displays. James McNeill Whistler lived nearby and painted its night scenes. Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket dates from about 1875.

It is a small panel, about 60 by 47 centimetres, and belongs to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Sparks drifting down through smoke

The sky is almost entirely dark green-black. Through it, tiny flecks of gold and orange fall like rain. Whistler flicked and dabbed them onto the surface, so they look scattered by chance.

At the upper right, a second cluster of sparks hangs in the air, already fading. The painting does not show the firework exploding. It shows what remains a moment later.

Shadowy spectators

Lower down, a band of smoke and orange light marks the fireworks platform and the lamps of the garden.

At the bottom, a few ghostly figures stand watching, painted as thin, dark shapes on the misty ground. They are barely there, dissolved by the darkness and smoke.

A painting that went to court

When the picture was shown in London in 1877, the critic John Ruskin attacked it, accusing Whistler of asking a high price for “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” Whistler sued him for libel.

At the trial in 1878, Whistler defended the idea that a painting could be an arrangement of colour and mood, not a detailed story. He won, but was awarded only a farthing in damages, and the legal costs helped bankrupt him.

Whistler’s Nocturnes

From the early 1870s, Whistler painted a series of night views of the Thames and its surroundings, which he called Nocturnes. The name came from music, suggested by his patron Frederick Leyland. Whistler believed painting should be like music, an arrangement of colours and forms, rather than a story or a moral lesson. His titles, such as Symphony, Harmony and Arrangement, reflect that idea.

Art for art’s sake

Whistler was a leader of the Aesthetic Movement, whose motto was art for art’s sake. He argued that a painting did not need to tell a story or teach anything. It should be judged only by its beauty. The Falling Rocket, which shows little more than darkness, smoke and sparks, was a bold demonstration of this idea.

The famous trial

When the painting was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, the influential critic John Ruskin wrote that he never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face. Whistler sued him for libel. During the trial in 1878, Ruskin’s lawyer asked Whistler whether he asked two hundred guineas for two days’ work. Whistler replied that he asked it for the knowledge of a lifetime.

Whistler won, but the jury awarded him only one farthing in damages, and the legal costs ruined him. He was declared bankrupt in 1879.

A step towards abstraction

Today The Falling Rocket is seen as an important step towards abstract art. Its loose, atmospheric handling and its focus on colour and mood anticipate twentieth-century painting. What shocked Ruskin now seems visionary.

Where to see it

The Falling Rocket hangs in the Detroit Institute of Arts, which bought it in 1946. Our hand-painted oil reproduction follows this composition. You can also read about Whistler’s Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl.

Questions about The Falling Rocket

What does it show?

A firework display at night over Cremorne Gardens in London.

Why is it famous?

John Ruskin’s attack on it led to Whistler’s libel case against him in 1878.

Where is the original?

Detroit Institute of Arts.

Why is it called a Nocturne?

Whistler used musical titles to stress colour and mood over storytelling.

How much did Whistler win from Ruskin?

One farthing in damages, and the costs led to his bankruptcy.

Why are his paintings called Nocturnes?

The musical term reflected Whistler’s idea that painting, like music, is an arrangement of harmonies.

Sources and image credit

• Detroit Institute of Arts: Nocturne in Black and Gold, The Falling Rocket
• Wikimedia Commons: Nocturne in Black and Gold

Faithful public-domain reproduction of Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (about 1875), via Wikimedia Commons. Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.