Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge is part of Whistler's Nocturnes series, created during the 1870s, which includes etchings, pastels, and paintings depicting London's Thames River at night. The painting portrays Battersea Bridge's pier in the foreground, while the tower of Chelsea Old Church and the newly built Albert Bridge can be seen in the distance. Fireworks appear as dots of color in the sky beyond the bridge. To create these works, Whistler traveled by boat along the river in the early evening, sketching as he went, relying on his memory and rough sketches to produce these thinly painted, atmospheric scenes of serene tranquility.

Whistler's admiration for the Japanese aesthetic is evident in the painting's composition, which shares similarities with Katsushika Hokusai's Under the Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa, one of Whistler's favorite Ukiyo-e painters. The painting was produced in Whistler's libel suit against John Ruskin as evidence of the artist's successful rendering of an artful impression or memory of a fleeting moment. Whistler argued that the subject matter becomes irrelevant, and the relationship between color and form is of paramount importance.

The painting was titled "nocturne" after wealthy shipping magnate and patron Frederick Leyland described it as such. It features variations of blues with a golden tinge. Whistler's style of blurring forms and emphasizing subtle tonal differences makes his "nocturnes" among the earliest experiments in abstraction. These works intrigued his Impressionist friends, who were exploring the relationship between different colors, and influenced French composer Claude Debussy, who created an orchestral composition titled Three Nocturnes in 1899.