Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach

Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach — James Abbott McNeill Whistler. 1863.

Medium: Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 50.8 × 68.6 cm (20 × 27 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

James McNeill Whistler painted marine scenes throughout his career, including this depiction of the Thames River, which was a frequent subject in Whistler’s work when he lived in London. Here, he focused on the river’s industrial elements: boats and barges, laboring men, and smoking chimneys. Whistler unified the composition with deft brushwork and a subtle palette of brown and gray that anticipated his later interest in delicate tonal harmonies. The painting’s bold realism and thickly painted surface were inspired by French artist Gustave Courbet, whose work Whistler encountered during his stays in Paris in the mid-1850s and 1860s.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.