Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket

James McNeill Whistler painted this atmospheric night scene around 1875, depicting fireworks at Cremorne Gardens, a London pleasure resort. Sparks of gold scatter across a deep black and blue background. The subject is barely recognizable: a few figures, a distant shore, and the exploding firework.

When exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, critic John Ruskin attacked it viciously, accusing Whistler of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face." Whistler sued for libel. At trial, when asked how long the painting took, he answered "two days." The lawyer scoffed: "The labour of two days, then, is that for which you ask two hundred guineas!" Whistler's famous reply: "No. I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime."

Whistler won but was awarded only a farthing in damages. Legal costs bankrupted him. Yet three years later, the painting sold for 800 guineas, four times his original asking price. The trial positioned Whistler as a forerunner of modern art, defending artistic vision against conventional expectations. It now hangs at the Detroit Institute of Arts.