Ylva, I’m glad you enjoyed them. I really love so much of Hassam’s work (although some of the more treacly stuff I can’t stand), and Whistler’s Nocturnes stuff I think are probably my favorites by him. That “dark light” he conjured is rather sad but beautiful.

Maybe the “nothing” you find also stems from its shallow 80s roots. Here’s part of the old copy Caron used to use for it on their site: “Dressed in black, timeless color, NOCTURNES is most certainly in resonance with the 80’s : the colored border and engraved flower executed by a Russian artist deepen the connection between NOCTURNES and the fine arts.” Uh, how is black a timeless color? I wasn’t aware the other colors were being counted on the clock. And what do fine arts have to do specifically with the 80s anyhow? That doesn’t follow, and that colon is unfortunately situated. Did fine arts only begin in that decade, unbeknownst to any of the rest of us? Here’s the choicest bit: “The bottle is by Pierre Dinand, one of the greatest bottle designers in the world; the pictorial qualities of the packaging, with a royal blue dominant, clearly affirm the elitist character of the product.” *snerk* Elitest.

You know, when it gets below freezing here, I get cranky I think. Anyhow, I admire it, but I’m open to it being nothing, too.