La ronda de noche, por Rembrandt van Rijn

Nocturne painting is a term coined by

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

to describe a painting style that depicts scenes evocative of the night or subjects as they appear in a veil of light, in twilight, or in the absence of direct light. In a broader usage, the term has come to refer to any painting of a night scene, or night-piece, such as

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

's ''

The Night Watch ''Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq'', also known as ''The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch'', but commonly referred to as ''The Night Watch'' ( nl, De Nachtwacht), i ...

''. Whistler used the term within the title of his works to represent paintings with a "dreamy, pensive mood" by applying a musical name. He also titled (and retitled) works using other terms associated with music, such as a "symphony", "harmony", "study" or "arrangement", to emphasize the tonal qualities and the composition and to de-emphasize the narrative content. The use of the term "nocturne" can be associated with the

Tonalism Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often domina ...

movement of the American of the late 19th century and early 20th century which is "characterized by soft, diffused light, muted tones and hazy outlined objects, all of which imbue the works with a strong sense of mood." Along with winter scenes, nocturnes were a common Tonalist theme.

Frederic Remington Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United Sta ...

used the term as well for his nocturne scenes of the

American Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

Rembrandt’s nocturnes

In northern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, the

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and art and ...

produced one of the greatest artists of all time. The first artist to paint scenes on a regular basis in the nocturne mode was

Rembrandt van Rijn Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

(1606–1669). Many of his portraits were also painted using a nocturne method. As in ''The Mill'' (1645), most of his landscapes were painted to evoke a sense of the nocturne, which could be expressed in either a calm or stormy manner.

Night scenes by Rembrandt

file:Rembrandt Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee.jpg, ''Christ In The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee'', 1633, depicts a nocturne scene evoking a sense of danger File:Rembrandt - Christ and the Woman of Samaria - WGA19110.jpg, ''Christ and the Woman of Samaria'', 1659, File:Rembrandt - De Poolse ruiter, c.1655 (Frick Collection).jpg, ''

The Polish Rider '' The Polish Rider '' is a seventeenth-century painting, usually dated to the 1650s, of a young man traveling on horseback through a murky landscape, now in The Frick Collection in New York. When the painting was sold by to Henry Frick in 1910, ...

'', 1655,

Nocturnes by James Abbott McNeill Whistler

“Nocturne” was a term that was normally applied to certain types of musical compositions before

(1834–1903), inspired by the language of music, began using the word within the titles of many of his works, such as ''Nocturne in Blue and Silver'' (1871), in the collection of the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, London, United Kingdom. Image:Whistler James Nocturne in Blue and Gold Valparaiso Bay 1866.jpg, ''Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay'', 1866 Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 010.jpg, ''Nocturne in Gray and Gold'',

Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats in the ...

, c. 1871-1874 Image:Whistler James Nocturne Trafalgar Square Chelsea Snow 1876.jpg, ''Nocturne Trafalgar Square Chelsea Snow,'' 1876 Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 011.jpg, ''Nocturne in Pink and Grey, Portrait of Lady Meux,'' 1881-1882

Frederic Remington’s nocturnes

Frederic Remington (1861-1909) is so identified for his nocturne scenes of the

that they were celebrated in 2003-2004 with an exhibition, ''Frederic Remington: The Color of Night'', co-organized and shown in turn by the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...

, Washington, D.C., and the

Gilcrease Museum Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a gro ...

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

. The exhibition also generated a colorful book of the same title and travelled to the

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Remington painted many of his nocturnes in the last years of his life, when he was transitioning from a career as an

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complic ...

to that of a fine artist and had chosen

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passa ...

as the style in which he worked at the time. One example of his work i
''The Stampede'' (also known as ''The Stampede by Lightning'', 1908).

Nocturnes by Frederic Remington

The paintings pictured in the gallery below are in order of date completed, left to right: Image:Remington-prettymother.jpg, ''Pretty Mother of the Night—White Otter is No Longer a Boy'' c. 1900, private collection Image:Remington-endofday.jpg, ''The End of the Day'' c. 1904, Frederic Remington Art Museum,

Ogdensburg, New York Ogdensburg ( moh, Kaniatarahòn:tsi) is a city in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The population was 10,436 at the 2019 census. In the late 18th century, European-American settlers named the community after American land owner and d ...

Image:Shotgun hospitality.jpg, ''Shotgun Hospitality'' 1908,

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is owned and operated by Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth dates to 1772, making the collection among the ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College, the U.S. Army Corps of En ...

Image:The Hunters' Supper.jpg, ''The Hunters' Supper'' c. 1909,

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of Am ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

, Oklahoma Image:FredericRemington-Moonlight_Wolf_c1909.jpg, ''Moonlight Wolf'' c. 1909,

Addison Gallery of American Art The Addison Gallery of American Art is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art, organized as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. History Directors of the gallery include Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (1940– ...

, Andover, Massachusetts Hiawatha - Eakins

Night scenes by American Impressionists and other American Realists

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history painti ...

(1801–1848), ''Moonlight'' (1833–34) * George Inness (1825-1894), ''Pool in the Woods'', 1892,

Worcester Art Museum The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and ranks among t ...

, Worcester, Massachusetts * John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902), ''Canal Venice'' c. 1878, private collection *John Henry Twachtman (1853–1902), ''L'Etang'' c. 1884, private collection *

Albert Pinkham Ryder Albert Pinkham Ryder (March 19, 1847 – March 28, 1917) was an American painter best known for his poetic and moody allegorical works and seascapes, as well as his eccentric personality. While his art shared an emphasis on subtle variations of ...

(1847–1917), ''Death on a Pale Horse'' (The Race Track) c. 1910, The

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

, Ohio * Frank Tenney Johnson (1874-1939), ''Rough Riding Rancheros'' c. 1933 *

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Hopper created subdued drama ...

(1882-1967), '' Nighthawks'', 1942,

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, Chicago, Illinois

Night scenes by American Impressionists and American Realists

File:Sargent John Singer Spanish Dancer.jpg,

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

, ''Spanish Dancer,'' 1879–1880,

The Hispanic Society of America The Hispanic Society of America operates a museum and reference library for the study of the arts and cultures of Spain and Portugal and their former colonies in Latin America, the Spanish East Indies, and Portuguese India. Despite the name, it ...

, New York File:Childe Hassam - Winter, Midnight (1894).jpg,

Childe Hassam Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...

, ''Winter, Midnight'', 1894 File:Willard Metcalf May Night.png,

Willard Metcalf Willard Leroy Metcalf (July 1, 1858March 9, 1925) was an American painter born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later attended Académie Julian, Paris. After early figure-painting and il ...

, ''May Night'' 1906,

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Desig ...

File:Julien Alden Weir The Bridge Nocturne aka Nocturne Queensboro Bridge.jpg,

J. Alden Weir Julian Alden Weir (August 30, 1852 – December 8, 1919) was an American impressionist painter and member of the Cos Cob Art Colony near Greenwich, Connecticut. Weir was also one of the founding members of "The Ten", a loosely allied group of ...

, ''The Bridge Nocturne aka Nocturne Queensboro Bridge,'' 1910,

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...

Night scenes by artists of other movements

Other artists who also created nocturne scenes are: *

Jacob van Ruisdael Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (; 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural ach ...

(1628–1682), ''Landscape with Church'' (circa 1660)] *Jacob van Ruisdael, :file:Jacob Isaaksz. van Ruisdael 009.jpg, ''Landscape'' (circa 1665) *

Augustus Leopold Egg Augustus Leopold Egg RA (2 May 1816, in London – 26 March 1863, in Algiers) was a British Victorian artist, and member of The Clique best known for his modern triptych '' Past and Present'' (1858), which depicts the breakup of a middle-clas ...

(1816–1863), ''Past and Present Number Three'' (circa 1853)] * John LaFarge, John LaFarge (1835-1920), ''The Lady of Shalott'' (1862) *

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Printmaking, prints ...

(1834–1917), ''Interior'' (nicknamed ''The Rape'') (1868–69), Philadelphia Museum of Art * Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), ''

Starry Night Over the Rhone Starry may refer to: * ''Starry'' (The Killjoys album), 1994 * Starry (Purr Machine album) *Donn A. Starry (1925–2011), United States Army general *Starry Lee (born 1974), Hong Kong politician *Starry Internet, a fixed wireless ISP service See ...

'' (1888)