Revelation of the Night

A domed cathedral topped with a gilded figure and an adjoining bell tower with a cross rise above a long embankment of lit residential buildings and trees, their outlines doubled in the still river below. A full moon hangs high in the deepening blue sky, and the dark silhouette of an onlooker's shoulder appears at the lower left edge of the scene.

Cool ultramarine sky deepens toward the top of the canvas while warm gold lamplight picks out the dome, tower, and rows of windows along the waterfront. The reflection is rendered with soft vertical strokes that dissolve the architecture into shimmering color, giving the whole scene a hushed, luminous stillness typical of a clear moonlit night.