1. Curry: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, Pg. 185
Whistler included enough information in this scene to let viewers identify the industrialized river, but he reduced what he saw to a subtle orchestration of gray and black, brightened with touches of rust at the center of the composition. In 1885, not long after this work was painted, Whistler delivered his Ten O' Clock Lecture. Whistler stated: "Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful." Whistler's rust-colored butterfly marks the artist's presence. It is very carefully placed, counterbalancing all the visual information that "nature" provided.
2. Morning Post, May 24, 1884
"...productions crude, immature, and, like King Richard, 'but half made up.'"
3. Standard, January 2, 1889
"representing chiefly pale broken clouds, in a wan and watery sky..."
4. Home Journal March 15, 1889
"...remarkably clever in indicating cloud effects."