Nocturneca. 1885
John La Farge painted this in about 1885, aged about 47. It is now at The Met in New York. More about this work
About this work
John La Farge painted this in about 1885, aged about 47. It is now at The Met in New York.
How it was made
- Opaque watercolour
- Watercolour made opaque with white or chalk and laid in flat, even layers. Persian and Indian painters ground their colours from minerals, applied them with the finest brushes and burnished the finished page.
- Charcoal
- Burnt willow or vine. It smudges and wipes away easily, which made it the natural tool for working out a composition.
- Watercolour
- Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.
John La Farge
American, 1835–1910 · Born in New York; died in Providence, Rhode Island.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 37.104
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Watercolor
- Department
- The American Wing
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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More by John La Farge
All their works
Close in colour
