Nocturne by the River

ClassificationsPaintings-oils

Artist Charles Rollo Peters (American, 1862 - 1928)

Date1922

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 16 x 24 in. (40.6 x 61 cm)

Credit LineMartha C. Stevens Memorial Art Collection

Object numberF7704

DescriptionPainters of nocturnal scenes exist in almost every painting community in the world, although they are always in the minority. California nocturnalists include Frank Tenney Johnson and Charles Rollo Peters. The turn of the century saw the rise of several nocturnalists inspired by paintings by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the American who settled in London where he painted almost abstract works which he called nocturnes. There was also a turn-of-the-century fashion for painting nighttime city scenes in the rain. Artists were fascinated with the light effects resulting from streetlights, carriage lights and lights from windows. Peters appeals to Victorian sentimentality in focusing on the humble home (usually a California adobe) in whose window a light burns, suggesting hospitality.

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