Battersea Reach

James McNeill Whistler

National Gallery of Art

We look slightly down onto and across a wide, boat-filled river under a cloudy sky at the far bank, which is lined with buildings, in this loosely painted, horizontal landscape. Four long, wooden boats are pulled up side-by-side to our right, so most of their prows are cropped by the right edge of the composition. Their amber-brown sails are tied up to the vertical masts and angled spars, which create a row of diagonal lines jutting into the painting from the right edge. The boats’ sterns are painted moss green, and the boat farthest from us has what could be a small dingy tethered off the back end. Several ghostly men and women stand below us, in the lower right corner, on a pecan-brown walkway low to the water. We can see through the people so the details are indistinct, but they all seem to look away from us except one person who looks our way, indicated with a touch of peach for a face. They wear long gowns and jackets or baggy shirts and trousers in tones of plum purple, caramel brown, light blue, or charcoal gray. In the middle of the river, a long, thin boat with a narrow, scarlet-red sail has drifted past them toward the left side of the composition. Two long strokes of cranberry red suggest more vessels on the water closer to the opposite shore. Low buildings painted in fawn and coffee brown, cherry red, cream, and tan line the far bank. The buildings become indistinct and fainter as they angle away from us into the distance. Bands of off-white clouds, some frothy and some wispy, fill the upper half of the painting. The sky is otherwise washed with violet purple, slate gray, and aquamarine blue. The river’s surface is smeared with the reflections of the sky, buildings, and boats.