Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket is a c. 1875 painting by James McNeill Whistler held in the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Whistler's depiction of the industrial city park in The Falling Rocket includes a fireworks display in the foggy night sky.

Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket is most famously known as the painting behind the lawsuit brought by Whistler against the art critic John Ruskin.

Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket is fundamentally composed of bleak tones, with three main colors: blue, green, and yellow.

Restricted in its use of colors, the piece develops a muted yet harmonious composition.The billowing smoke gives the viewer a clear distinction between the water and the sky, where the separation blurs into a cohesive and somber space.

[1] The Falling Rocket retains a certain degree of color-laden luminosity that provokes spatial ambiguity set against a structure of line and form.

Affronted by The Falling Rocket, John Ruskin accused Whistler of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face" in the Fors Clavigera.

[3] As a leading art critic of the Victorian era, Ruskin's harsh critique of The Falling Rocket caused an uproar among owners of other Whistler works.

John Ruskin was not aware of the effort and theory that had gone into Nocturne in Black and Gold when he accused The Falling Rocket of being a public insult.

[12] It has been suggested John Ruskin suffered from CADASIL syndrome and the visual disturbances this condition caused him might have been a factor in his irritation at this particular painting.