UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

bridge, building, canal, night, people, nocturne.

Variations on the title are as follows:


Possibly 'The Little Amsterdam' (1890, Whistler). 1
'Little Amsterdam' and 'Little Nocturne Amsterdam' (1890/1891, Whistler). 2
'Little Amsterdam' (1891, Whistler). 3
'Little Nocturne. Amsterdam' (1903/1935, possibly Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958)). 4
'Little nocturne' (1890/1892, Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896)). 5
'Nocturne (Little)' (1893, Ernest George Brown (1853/1854-1915)). 6
'Little Nocturne, Amsterdam' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 7


'Little Nocturne, Amsterdam' is the preferred title, avoiding confusion with other 'Little' Dutch subjects such as Little Drawbridge, Amsterdam 448 as well as with the large etching, The Dance House: Nocturne 455.

A view up a canal, which takes up the lower two-thirds of the plate. The scene is veiled in mist and shadows. Above the canal, a group of men and women are standing towards the left and a man walking to right on a narrow bridge. Behind them at left is a row of houses, at least three stories high, receding to right, with the gable end of a roof just visible at upper right. Just at the end of the bridge, or just behind it, is what appears to be a very small house with lit windows and a sloping roof. The scene is reflected in the canal.

Probably Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands. 8

Other Nocturnes by Whistler include Nocturne 222, Nocturne: Palaces 200, Nocturne: Furnace 208, Nocturne Shipping 206, Nocturne: Salute 203 and one elaborately worked one from Whistler's Netherlands trip, The Dance House: Nocturne 455.