Nocturne (By Night)
Medium
lithograph in blue-black on china paper
Dimensions
sheet: 38.8 x 28.9 cm (15 1/4 x 11 3/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Virginia and Ira Jackson Collection, gift in memory of Virginia H. Jackson
Accession Number
1996.151.56
Art Historical Context
**Nocturne (By Night)**, created by French artist Paul Edouard Crébassa in 1895, captures the moody allure of evening through the medium of lithography in blue-black ink on delicate china paper. Measuring 38.8 x 28.9 cm, this print exemplifies the late 19th-century fascination with nocturnes—poetic depictions of night that evoke mystery and atmosphere, much like those popularized by James McNeill Whistler. Crébassa's choice of lithography, a technique pioneered in the 1790s that allows for rich tonal gradations through greasy crayon on stone, lends the work a velvety depth, with the thin china...