Cremorne Gardens, No. 2, by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834–1903). ca.1870-80. Oil on canvas. 27 x 53 1/8 in. (68.6 x 134.9 cm). Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Credit Line: John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1912. Accession Number: 12.32. Identified as being in the Public Domain.
According to the gallery's entry on it, "[i]n this so-called nocturne, painted in London’s Cremorne Gardens (near his Chelsea home-studio), Whistler explores the theme of modern life embraced by many of his European associates, especially the French Impressionists. An elegant, manicured park that drew fashionable strollers during the daytime hours, the Gardens at night became a site for lively music, dancing, and fireworks, frequented by a broader range of classes."
It was a favourite haunt of his. He would sometimes "stay on the river all night, lingering in the lights of Cremorne" (Pennell 107), and several of his Nocturnes were painted there (see Pennell 166). Indeed, he explained to the Attorney-General at the Ruskin-Whistler trial that The Falling Rocket in fact represented "the fireworks at Cremone" (Pennell 235). On such occasions he was often accompanied by the watermen Walter and Harry Greaves, who became both his studio assistants and his friends. — Jacqueline Banerjee.
Related Material
- Cremorne Gardens: Its History Between 1845 and 1877
- Walter Greaves's The Cremorne Gardens at Night, showing entrance to theatre and stooping Venus fountain
- Walter Greaves's The Band Stand, Cremorne Gardens
- Walter Greaves's The Gates to Cremorne Gardens
Bibliography
Pennell, Elizabeth Robins and Joseph. Life of James McNeill Whistler. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Lippincott / London: Heinemann, 1908. Contributed by Whitney Museum of American Art, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library. Web. 18 November 2020.
Created 18 November 2020