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{{Short description|Interior decorated by James McNeill Whistler and Thomas Jeckyll}}
{{Short description|Interior decorated by James McNeill Whistler and Thomas Jeckyll}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox artwork
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Harmony in Blue and Gold:<br />The Peacock Room
| title = Harmony in Blue and Gold:<br />The Peacock Room
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| coordinates = {{coord|38|53|16.50|N|77|01|37.00|W|region:US-DC_type:landmark_scale:500|display=inline}}
| coordinates = {{coord|38|53|16.50|N|77|01|37.00|W|region:US-DC_type:landmark_scale:500|display=inline}}
| accession = F1904-61
| accession = F1904-61
| movement = [[Aestheticism]] and [[Japonisme]]
}}
}}


{{PanoViewer|Peacock Room at Freer Gallery of Art - Panorama.jpg|360&deg; panorama}}
⚫
'''''Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room''''' (better known as '''''The Peacock Room'''''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://asia.si.edu/object/F1904.61/|title=Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room|publisher=[[Freer Gallery of Art|Freer Sackler: Smithsonian"s Museums of Asian Art]]|access-date=2022-01-20}}</ref>) is a masterpiece of interior decorative art created by [[James McNeill Whistler]] and [[Thomas Jeckyll]], translocated to the [[Freer Gallery of Art]] in Washington, DC. Whistler painted the paneled room in a rich and unified palette of brilliant blue-greens with over-[[glaze (painting technique)|glazing]] and metallic [[gold leaf]]. Painted between 1876–77, it now is considered one of the greatest surviving [[Aestheticism|Aesthetic]] interiors, and best examples of the [[Anglo-Japanese style]].<ref name="SI">{{cite web |last1=Catlin |first1=Roger |title=Whistler’s ‘Peacock Room’ Open After Weeks of Restoration |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/whistlers-peacock-room-open-after-weeks-of-restoration-180980835/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2 October 2022 |date=29 September 2022}}</ref>

⚫
'''''Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room''''' (better known as '''''The Peacock Room'''''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://asia.si.edu/object/F1904.61/|title=Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room|publisher=[[Freer Gallery of Art|Freer Sackler: Smithsonian"s Museums of Asian Art]]|access-date=2022-01-20}}</ref>) is a work of interior decorative art created by [[James McNeill Whistler]] and [[Thomas Jeckyll]], translocated to the [[Freer Gallery of Art]] in Washington, D.C. Whistler painted the paneled room in a unified palette of blue-greens with over-[[glaze (painting technique)|glazing]] and metallic [[gold leaf]]. Painted between 1876 and 1877, it now is considered one of the greatest surviving [[Aestheticism|Aesthetic]] interiors, and best examples of the [[Anglo-Japanese style]].<ref name="SI">{{cite web |last1=Catlin |first1=Roger |title=Whistler's 'Peacock Room' Open After Weeks of Restoration |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/whistlers-peacock-room-open-after-weeks-of-restoration-180980835/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2 October 2022 |date=29 September 2022}}</ref>


==History==
==History==
''The Peacock Room'' was originally designed as a dining room in the townhouse located at {{nowrap|49 Prince's Gate}} in the neighbourhood of [[Kensington]] in [[London]], and owned by the British shipping magnate [[Frederick Richards Leyland]].<ref name="brochure">{{cite book |last1=Merrill |first1=Linda |year=2000 |title=Whistler's Peacock Room |url=http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/peacock/images/PeacockRoom.pdf |location=[[Washington, D.C.]] |publisher=[[Freer Gallery of Art]] |access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref> Leyland engaged the British architect [[Richard Norman Shaw]] to remodel and redecorate his home.<ref name="schultz">{{cite book |last1=Schulz |first1=Max F |year=1985 |title=Paradise Preserved: Recreations of Eden in Eighteenth– and Nineteenth– Century England |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-xWNgFtcmAC |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=306 |isbn=9780521301732 |lccn=85005959 |oclc=11867731 |access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref> Shaw entrusted the remodelling of the dining room to [[Thomas Jeckyll]], another British architect experienced in the [[Anglo-Japanese style]].<ref name="brochure"/><ref name="schultz"/> Jeckyll conceived the dining room as a ''Porzellanzimmer'' (porcelain room).
''The Peacock Room'' was originally designed to serve as the dining room in the townhouse located at {{nowrap|49 Prince's Gate}} in the neighbourhood of [[Kensington]] in London, and owned by the British shipping magnate [[Frederick Richards Leyland]].<ref name="brochure">{{cite book |last1=Merrill |first1=Linda |year=2000 |title=The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biography}}</ref><ref>[https://asia.si.edu/peacock-room/ Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, The Peacock Room]</ref> Leyland engaged the British architect [[Richard Norman Shaw]] to remodel and redecorate his home.<ref name="schultz">{{cite book |last1=Schulz |first1=Max F |year=1985 |title=Paradise Preserved: Recreations of Eden in Eighteenth– and Nineteenth– Century England |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-xWNgFtcmAC |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=306 |isbn=9780521301732 |lccn=85005959 |oclc=11867731 |access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref> Shaw entrusted the remodelling of the dining room to [[Thomas Jeckyll]], another British architect experienced in the [[Anglo-Japanese style]].<ref name="brochure"/><ref name="schultz"/> Jeckyll conceived the dining room as a ''Porzellanzimmer'' (porcelain room).


He covered the walls with 16th-century wall hangings of ''[[Cuir de Cordoue]]'' that had been originally brought to England as part of the dowry of [[Catherine of Aragon]]. They were painted with her heraldic device, the open pomegranate, and a series of red roses, [[Tudor rose]]s, to symbolise her union with [[Henry VIII]]. They had hung on the walls of a [[Tudor architecture|Tudor style house]] in [[Norfolk]] for centuries, before they were bought by Leyland for £1,000.<ref name="peters">{{cite book |last1=Peters |first1=Lisa N |year=1996 |title=James McNeill Whistler |url=https://archive.org/details/jamesmcneillwhis00lisa |url-access=registration |location=New York City |publisher=Smithmark |page=[https://archive.org/details/jamesmcneillwhis00lisa/page/37 37] |isbn=9781880908709 |oclc=40598527 |access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref><ref name="wayne">{{cite web |url=http://www.peacockroom.wayne.edu/history-london |title=The Story of the Beautiful |author=[[Freer Gallery of Art]] |author2=[[Arthur M. Sackler Gallery]] |author3=[[Wayne State University]]'s Library System |year=2014 |at=Visual History > In London |access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref><ref name="schultz"/> Against these walls, Jekyll constructed an intricate lattice framework of engraved spindled walnut shelves that held Leyland's collection of [[Chinese porcelain|Chinese]] [[blue and white porcelain]], mostly from the [[Kangxi transitional porcelain|Kangxi era]] of the [[Qing dynasty]].<ref name="schultz"/><ref name="wayne"/>
He covered the walls with 16th-century wall hangings of ''[[Cuir de Cordoue]]'' that had been originally brought to England as part of the dowry of [[Catherine of Aragon]]. They were painted with her heraldic device, the open pomegranate, and a series of red [[Tudor rose]]s to symbolize her union with [[Henry VIII]]. They had hung on the walls of a [[Tudor architecture|Tudor style house]] in [[Norfolk]] for centuries before they were bought by Leyland for £1,000.<ref name="peters">{{cite book |last1=Peters |first1=Lisa N |year=1996 |title=James McNeill Whistler |url=https://archive.org/details/jamesmcneillwhis00lisa |url-access=registration |location=New York City |publisher=Smithmark |page=[https://archive.org/details/jamesmcneillwhis00lisa/page/37 37] |isbn=9781880908709 |oclc=40598527 |access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref><ref name="wayne">{{cite web |url=http://www.peacockroom.wayne.edu/history-london |title=The Story of the Beautiful |author=[[Freer Gallery of Art]] |author2=[[Arthur M. Sackler Gallery]] |author3=[[Wayne State University]]'s Library System |year=2014 |at=Visual History → In London |access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref><ref name="schultz"/> Against these walls, Jekyll constructed an intricate lattice framework of engraved spindled walnut shelves that held Leyland's collection of [[Chinese porcelain|Chinese]] [[blue and white porcelain]], mostly from the [[Kangxi transitional porcelain|Kangxi era]] of the [[Qing dynasty]].<ref name="schultz"/><ref name="wayne"/>


To the south of the room, a walnut [[welsh dresser]] was placed in the centre, just below the large empty leather panel, and flanked on both sides by the framework shelves. On the east side, three tall windows parted the room overlooking a private park,<ref name="schultz"/> and covered by full-length walnut shutters.<ref name="wayne"/> To the north a fireplace, over which hung the painting by American painter [[James McNeill Whistler]], ''[[Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain]]'',<ref name="brochure"/> that served as the focal point of the room. The ceiling was constructed in a pendant panelled Tudor-style, and decorated with eight globed pendant gas light fixtures. To finish the room, Jekyll placed a rug with a red border on the floor.<ref name="schultz"/>
To the south of the room, a walnut [[Welsh dresser]] was placed in the centre, just below the large empty leather panel, and flanked on both sides by the framework shelves. On the east side, three tall windows parted the room overlooking a private park,<ref name="schultz"/> and covered by full-length walnut shutters.<ref name="wayne"/> To the north a fireplace, over which hung the painting by American painter [[James McNeill Whistler]], ''[[Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain]]'',<ref name="brochure"/> that served as the focal point of the room. The ceiling was constructed in a pendant panelled Tudor-style, and decorated with eight globed pendant gas light fixtures. To finish the room, Jekyll placed a rug with a red border on the floor.<ref name="schultz"/>


[[File:The Peacock Room - The Princess from the Land of Porcelain.png|thumb|''[[The Princess from the Land of Porcelain]]'', ''in situ'' in the ''Peacock Room''.]]
[[File:The Peacock Room - The Princess from the Land of Porcelain.png|thumb|''[[The Princess from the Land of Porcelain]]'', ''in situ'' in the ''Peacock Room'']]


Jeckyll had nearly completed his decorative scheme when an illness compelled him to abandon the project. Whistler, who was then working on decorations for the entrance hall of Leyland's house, volunteered to finish Jeckyll's work in the dining room. Concerned that the red roses adorning the leather wall hangings clashed with the colours in ''The Princess'', Whistler suggested retouching the leather with yellow paint, and Leyland agreed to that minor alteration.<ref name="SI"/> He also authorised Whistler to embellish the cornice and wainscoting with a "wave pattern" derived from the design in Jeckyll's leaded-glass door, and then went to his home in Liverpool. During Leyland's absence however, Whistler grew bolder with his revisions.<ref name="SI"/>
Jeckyll had nearly completed his decorative scheme when an illness compelled him to abandon the project. Whistler, who was then working on decorations for the entrance hall of Leyland's house, volunteered to finish Jeckyll's work in the dining room. Concerned that the red roses adorning the leather wall hangings clashed with the colours in ''The Princess'', Whistler suggested retouching the leather with yellow paint, and Leyland agreed to that minor alteration.<ref name="SI"/> He also authorised Whistler to embellish the cornice and wainscoting with a "wave pattern" derived from the design in Jeckyll's leaded-glass door, and then went to his home in Liverpool. During Leyland's absence, however, Whistler grew bolder with his revisions.<ref name="SI"/>


{{quote|Well, you know, I just painted on. I went on ―without design or sketch― it grew as I painted. And toward the end I reached such a point of perfection ―putting in every touch with such freedom― that when I came round to the corner where I started, why, I had to paint part of it over again, as the difference would have been too marked. And the harmony in blue and gold developing, you know, I forgot everything in my joy in it.<ref name="SI"/>
{{blockquote|Well, you know, I just painted on. I went on—without design or sketch—it grew as I painted. And toward the end, I reached such a point of perfection—putting in every touch with such freedom—that when I came round to the corner where I started, why, I had to paint part of it over again, as the difference would have been too marked. And the harmony in blue and gold developing, you know, I forgot everything in my joy in it!<ref name="SI"/>
|[[James McNeill Whistler]]|}}
|[[James McNeill Whistler]]|}}
Upon returning, Leyland was shocked by the "improvements". Artist and patron quarrelled so violently over the room and the proper compensation for the work that the important relationship for Whistler was terminated. At one point, Whistler gained access to Leyland's home and painted two fighting peacocks meant to represent the artist and his patron, which he titled ''Art and Money: or, The Story of the Room''.<ref name="brochure" /><ref name="SI"/>
Upon returning, Leyland was shocked by the "improvements". The artist and patron quarreled so violently over the room and the proper compensation for the work that the relationship for Whistler was terminated.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Ault |first=Alicia |title=How Golden Peacocks on a Dining Room Wall Destroyed a Longstanding Friendship in Victorian Society |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-golden-peacocks-on-a-dining-room-wall-destroyed-a-longstanding-friendship-in-victorian-society-180984735/ |access-date=2024-07-20 |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> At one point, Whistler gained access to Leyland's home and painted two fighting peacocks meant to represent the artist and his patron, which he titled ''Art and Money: or, The Story of the Room''.<ref name="brochure" /><ref name="SI"/>


Whistler is reported to have said to Leyland, "Ah, I have made you famous. My work will live when you are forgotten. Still, per chance, in the dim ages to come you will be remembered as the proprietor of the Peacock Room."<ref name="peters"/>
Whistler is reported to have said to Leyland, "Ah, I have made you famous. My work will live when you are forgotten. Still, per chance, in the dim ages to come you will be remembered as the proprietor of the Peacock Room."<ref name="peters"/>


The dispute between Whistler and Leyland did not end there. In 1879, Whistler was forced to file for bankruptcy, and Leyland was his chief creditor at the time. When the creditors arrived to inventory the artist's home for liquidation, they were greeted by ''The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor)'', a large painted caricature of Leyland portrayed as an anthropomorphic demonic peacock playing a piano, sitting upon Whistler's house, painted in the same colours featured in the ''Peacock Room''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://deyoung.famsf.org/blog/framework-gold-scab-eruption-frilthy-lucre-creditor-james-mcneill-whistler |title=FRAME WORK: The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor) by James McNeill Whistler |first1=Sarah Bailey |last1=Hogarty |date=2012-05-30 |access-date=2014-04-30 |publisher=[[de Young (museum)|De Young]] }}</ref> He referenced the incident again in his book, ''[[The Gentle Art of Making Enemies]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Whistler |first1=James McNeill |year=1890 |chapter='Noblesse Oblige' |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jShVMY5NbdsC&pg=PA174 |title=[[The Gentle Art of Making Enemies]] |location=New York City |publisher=Stokes |oclc=181673833 |pages=174–175|isbn=9780486218755 }}</ref> Adding to the emotional drama was Whistler's fondness for Leyland's wife, Frances, who separated from her husband in 1879.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Ronald K |last2=Koval |first2=Anne |title=James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth |date=15 July 2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cs1VPwAACAAJ |location=New York City |publisher=[[Carroll & Graf]] |page=209 |isbn=9780786710324 |lccn=95008187 |oclc=249340890 |access-date=2014-04-30}}</ref> Another result of this drama was Jeckyll who, so shocked by the first sight of ''his'' room, returned home and was later found on the floor of his studio covered in gold leaf; he never recovered and died insane three years later.<ref name="pennell">{{cite book |last1=Elizabeth Robins |first1=Pennell |author-link1=Elizabeth Robins |last2=Pennell |first2=Joseph |author-link2=Joseph Pennell |year=1921 |title=The Whistler Journal |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.152345 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=J.B. Lippincott Co |pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.152345/page/n190 109]–111 |lccn=22000469 |oclc=1878264 |access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref><ref name="hobbs">{{cite book |last=Hobbs |first=Susan |title=The Whistler Peacock Room |page=[https://archive.org/details/whistlerpeacockr00free/page/15 15] |location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=[[Freer Gallery of Art]] |year=1980 |isbn=9780934686341 |lccn=80020516 |oclc=6626888 |url=https://archive.org/details/whistlerpeacockr00free |access-date=2014-04-30 |edition=4th}}</ref>
The dispute between Whistler and Leyland did not end there. In 1879, Whistler was forced to file for bankruptcy, and Leyland was his chief creditor at the time. When the creditors arrived to inventory the artist's home for liquidation, they were greeted by ''[[:File:The Gold Scab - Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor) by James McNeill Whistler, 1879, oil on canvas - De Young Museum - DSC00889.JPG|The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor)]]'', a large painted caricature of Leyland portrayed as an anthropomorphic demonic peacock playing a piano, sitting upon Whistler's house, painted in the same colours featured in the ''Peacock Room''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://deyoung.famsf.org/blog/framework-gold-scab-eruption-frilthy-lucre-creditor-james-mcneill-whistler |title=FRAME WORK: The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor) by James McNeill Whistler |first1=Sarah Bailey |last1=Hogarty |date=2012-05-30 |access-date=2014-04-30 |publisher=[[de Young (museum)|De Young]] }}</ref> He referenced the incident again in his book, ''[[The Gentle Art of Making Enemies]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Whistler |first1=James McNeill |year=1890 |chapter='Noblesse Oblige' |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jShVMY5NbdsC&pg=PA174 |title=[[The Gentle Art of Making Enemies]] |location=New York City |publisher=Stokes |oclc=181673833 |pages=174–175|isbn=9780486218755 }}</ref> Adding to the emotional drama was Whistler's fondness for Leyland's wife, Frances, who separated from her husband in 1879.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Ronald K |last2=Koval |first2=Anne |title=James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth |date=15 July 2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cs1VPwAACAAJ |location=New York City |publisher=[[Carroll & Graf]] |page=209 |isbn=9780786710324 |lccn=95008187 |oclc=249340890 |access-date=2014-04-30}}</ref> Another result of this drama was Jeckyll who, so shocked by the first sight of ''his'' room, returned home and was later found on the floor of his studio covered in gold leaf; he never recovered and died insane three years later.<ref name="pennell">{{cite book |last1=Elizabeth Robins |first1=Pennell |author-link1=Elizabeth Robins |last2=Pennell |first2=Joseph |author-link2=Joseph Pennell |year=1921 |title=The Whistler Journal |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.152345 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=J.B. Lippincott Co |pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.152345/page/n190 109]–111 |lccn=22000469 |oclc=1878264 |access-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref><ref name="hobbs">{{cite book |last=Hobbs |first=Susan |title=The Whistler Peacock Room |page=[https://archive.org/details/whistlerpeacockr00free/page/15 15] |location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=[[Freer Gallery of Art]] |year=1980 |isbn=9780934686341 |lccn=80020516 |oclc=6626888 |url=https://archive.org/details/whistlerpeacockr00free |access-date=2014-04-30 |edition=4th}}</ref>


Having acquired ''The Princess from the Land of Porcelain'', American industrialist and art collector [[Charles Lang Freer]] anonymously purchased the entire room in 1904 from Leyland's heirs, including Leyland's daughter and her husband, the British artist [[Valentine Cameron Prinsep|Val Prinsep]]. Freer then had the contents of the ''Peacock Room'' installed in [[Charles Lang Freer House|his Detroit mansion]].<ref name="SI"/> After Freer's death in 1919, the ''Peacock Room'' was permanently installed in the [[Freer Gallery of Art]] at the [[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]] in Washington, D.C. The gallery opened to the public in 1923.<ref name="brochure"/>
Having acquired ''The Princess from the Land of Porcelain'', American industrialist and art collector [[Charles Lang Freer]] anonymously purchased the entire room in 1904 from Leyland's heirs, including Leyland's daughter and her husband, the British artist [[Valentine Cameron Prinsep|Val Prinsep]]. Freer then had the contents of the ''Peacock Room'' installed in [[Charles Lang Freer House|his Detroit mansion]].<ref name="SI"/> After Freer's death in 1919, the ''Peacock Room'' was permanently installed in the [[Freer Gallery of Art]] at the [[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]] in Washington, D.C. The gallery opened to the public in 1923.<ref name="brochure"/>


''The Peacock Room'' was closed for renovation, along with other parts of the gallery, in January 2016. It reopened to the public in the summer of 2017<ref name=renovation>{{cite news |last=BOWLEY |first=GRAHAM |date=10 February 2015 |title=Freer Gallery to Close for Renovations in January
''The Peacock Room'' was closed for renovation, along with other parts of the gallery, in January 2016. It reopened to the public in the summer of 2017;<ref name=renovation>{{cite news |last=BOWLEY |first=GRAHAM |date=10 February 2015 |title=Freer Gallery to Close for Renovations in January
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/arts/design/freer-gallery-to-close-for-renovations-in-january.html |newspaper=New York Times |location=New York |access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref>; it also underwent extensive restoration in 2022.<ref name="SI"/>
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/arts/design/freer-gallery-to-close-for-renovations-in-january.html |newspaper=New York Times |location=New York |access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref> it also underwent extensive restoration in 2022.<ref name="SI"/>


==Legacy==
==Legacy==
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|url=http://www.vogue.com/13261269/filthy-lucre-is-a-beautiful-nightmare/ |newspaper=New York Times |location=New York |access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref>
|url=http://www.vogue.com/13261269/filthy-lucre-is-a-beautiful-nightmare/ |newspaper=New York Times |location=New York |access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref>


In March 2020, ''Church Life'', a journal of the [[University of Notre Dame]]'s McGrath Institute, published "[https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/an-intelligent-persons-guide-to-contemporary-art-appreciation/ The Art of Madness and Mystery]," an essay which uses ''The Peacock Room'' and Waterson's ''Filthy Lucre'' to examine at length the differences and inherent character of traditional art (especially in the context of [[Aestheticism]]) and [[Contemporary Art]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shindler |first1=Michael |title=The Art of Madness and Mystery |journal=Church Life Journal |date=March 2, 2020 |url=https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/an-intelligent-persons-guide-to-contemporary-art-appreciation/ |access-date=10 March 2020 |publisher=The McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame}}</ref>
In March 2020, ''Church Life'', a journal of the [[University of Notre Dame]]'s McGrath Institute, published "[https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/an-intelligent-persons-guide-to-contemporary-art-appreciation/ The Art of Madness and Mystery]," an essay which uses ''The Peacock Room'' and Waterson's ''Filthy Lucre'' to examine at length the differences and inherent character of traditional art (especially in the context of [[Aestheticism]]) and [[Contemporary Art]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shindler |first1=Michael |title=The Art of Madness and Mystery |journal=Church Life Journal |date=March 2, 2020 |url=https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/an-intelligent-persons-guide-to-contemporary-art-appreciation/ |access-date=10 March 2020 |publisher=The McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame}}</ref>


== See also ==
== See also ==
Line 69: Line 73:
==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category|Peacock Room}}
{{Commons category|Peacock Room}}
*{{cite web| url=https://asia.si.edu/peacock-room/ |title=Current Exhibitions:''The Peacock Room'' |publisher=[[Freer Gallery of Art|Freer]] [[Arthur M. Sackler Gallery|Sackler]]: The Smithsonian's Museums of Asian Art }}
*{{cite web| url=https://asia.si.edu/peacock-room/ |title=Current Exhibitions:''The Peacock Room'' |publisher=[[Freer Gallery of Art|Freer]] [[Arthur M. Sackler Gallery|Sackler]]: The Smithsonian's [[National Museum of Asian Art]] }}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/series/467/smithsonian-spotlight/136100/peacock-room|title=Smithsonian Spotlight: ''Peacock Room''|publisher=[[Smithsonian Channel]]|year=2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502000635/http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/series/467/smithsonian-spotlight/136100/peacock-room|archive-date=2014-05-02}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/series/467/smithsonian-spotlight/136100/peacock-room|title=Smithsonian Spotlight: ''Peacock Room''|publisher=[[Smithsonian Channel]]|year=2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502000635/http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/series/467/smithsonian-spotlight/136100/peacock-room|archive-date=2014-05-02}}


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[[Category:Collection of the Smithsonian Institution]]
[[Category:Collection of the Smithsonian Institution]]
[[Category:Individual rooms in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Individual rooms in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler]]
[[Category:Works by James McNeill Whistler]]
[[Category:Birds in art]]
[[Category:Peafowl in art]]
[[Category:Paintings in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Paintings in Washington, D.C.]]

Latest revision as of 21:55, 15 September 2024

Harmony in Blue and Gold:
The Peacock Room
ArtistJames McNeill Whistler and Thomas Jeckyll
Year1877 (1877)
TypeRoom installation
MediumOil paint and gold leaf on canvas, leather, and wood
MovementAestheticism and Japonisme
Dimensions421.6 cm × 613.4 cm × 1026.2 cm (166.0 in × 241.5 in × 404.0 in)
LocationFreer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Coordinates38°53′16.50″N 77°01′37.00″W / 38.8879167°N 77.0269444°W / 38.8879167; -77.0269444
AccessionF1904-61
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Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room (better known as The Peacock Room[1]) is a work of interior decorative art created by James McNeill Whistler and Thomas Jeckyll, translocated to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Whistler painted the paneled room in a unified palette of blue-greens with over-glazing and metallic gold leaf. Painted between 1876 and 1877, it now is considered one of the greatest surviving Aesthetic interiors, and best examples of the Anglo-Japanese style.[2]

History

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The Peacock Room was originally designed to serve as the dining room in the townhouse located at 49 Prince's Gate in the neighbourhood of Kensington in London, and owned by the British shipping magnate Frederick Richards Leyland.[3][4] Leyland engaged the British architect Richard Norman Shaw to remodel and redecorate his home.[5] Shaw entrusted the remodelling of the dining room to Thomas Jeckyll, another British architect experienced in the Anglo-Japanese style.[3][5] Jeckyll conceived the dining room as a Porzellanzimmer (porcelain room).

He covered the walls with 16th-century wall hangings of Cuir de Cordoue that had been originally brought to England as part of the dowry of Catherine of Aragon. They were painted with her heraldic device, the open pomegranate, and a series of red Tudor roses to symbolize her union with Henry VIII. They had hung on the walls of a Tudor style house in Norfolk for centuries before they were bought by Leyland for £1,000.[6][7][5] Against these walls, Jekyll constructed an intricate lattice framework of engraved spindled walnut shelves that held Leyland's collection of Chinese blue and white porcelain, mostly from the Kangxi era of the Qing dynasty.[5][7]

To the south of the room, a walnut Welsh dresser was placed in the centre, just below the large empty leather panel, and flanked on both sides by the framework shelves. On the east side, three tall windows parted the room overlooking a private park,[5] and covered by full-length walnut shutters.[7] To the north a fireplace, over which hung the painting by American painter James McNeill Whistler, Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain,[3] that served as the focal point of the room. The ceiling was constructed in a pendant panelled Tudor-style, and decorated with eight globed pendant gas light fixtures. To finish the room, Jekyll placed a rug with a red border on the floor.[5]

The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, in situ in the Peacock Room

Jeckyll had nearly completed his decorative scheme when an illness compelled him to abandon the project. Whistler, who was then working on decorations for the entrance hall of Leyland's house, volunteered to finish Jeckyll's work in the dining room. Concerned that the red roses adorning the leather wall hangings clashed with the colours in The Princess, Whistler suggested retouching the leather with yellow paint, and Leyland agreed to that minor alteration.[2] He also authorised Whistler to embellish the cornice and wainscoting with a "wave pattern" derived from the design in Jeckyll's leaded-glass door, and then went to his home in Liverpool. During Leyland's absence, however, Whistler grew bolder with his revisions.[2]

Well, you know, I just painted on. I went on—without design or sketch—it grew as I painted. And toward the end, I reached such a point of perfection—putting in every touch with such freedom—that when I came round to the corner where I started, why, I had to paint part of it over again, as the difference would have been too marked. And the harmony in blue and gold developing, you know, I forgot everything in my joy in it![2]

— James McNeill Whistler

Upon returning, Leyland was shocked by the "improvements". The artist and patron quarreled so violently over the room and the proper compensation for the work that the relationship for Whistler was terminated.[8] At one point, Whistler gained access to Leyland's home and painted two fighting peacocks meant to represent the artist and his patron, which he titled Art and Money: or, The Story of the Room.[3][2]

Whistler is reported to have said to Leyland, "Ah, I have made you famous. My work will live when you are forgotten. Still, per chance, in the dim ages to come you will be remembered as the proprietor of the Peacock Room."[6]

The dispute between Whistler and Leyland did not end there. In 1879, Whistler was forced to file for bankruptcy, and Leyland was his chief creditor at the time. When the creditors arrived to inventory the artist's home for liquidation, they were greeted by The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor), a large painted caricature of Leyland portrayed as an anthropomorphic demonic peacock playing a piano, sitting upon Whistler's house, painted in the same colours featured in the Peacock Room.[9] He referenced the incident again in his book, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies.[10] Adding to the emotional drama was Whistler's fondness for Leyland's wife, Frances, who separated from her husband in 1879.[11] Another result of this drama was Jeckyll who, so shocked by the first sight of his room, returned home and was later found on the floor of his studio covered in gold leaf; he never recovered and died insane three years later.[12][13]

Having acquired The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, American industrialist and art collector Charles Lang Freer anonymously purchased the entire room in 1904 from Leyland's heirs, including Leyland's daughter and her husband, the British artist Val Prinsep. Freer then had the contents of the Peacock Room installed in his Detroit mansion.[2] After Freer's death in 1919, the Peacock Room was permanently installed in the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The gallery opened to the public in 1923.[3]

The Peacock Room was closed for renovation, along with other parts of the gallery, in January 2016. It reopened to the public in the summer of 2017;[14] it also underwent extensive restoration in 2022.[2]

Legacy

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Filthy Lucre, an installation by contemporary artist Darren Waterston, replicates The Peacock Room in a state of decay and disrepair. It opened in May 2015.[15]

In March 2020, Church Life, a journal of the University of Notre Dame's McGrath Institute, published "The Art of Madness and Mystery," an essay which uses The Peacock Room and Waterson's Filthy Lucre to examine at length the differences and inherent character of traditional art (especially in the context of Aestheticism) and Contemporary Art.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room". Freer Sackler: Smithsonian"s Museums of Asian Art. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Catlin, Roger (September 29, 2022). "Whistler's 'Peacock Room' Open After Weeks of Restoration". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved October 2, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e Merrill, Linda (2000). The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biography.
  4. ^ Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, The Peacock Room
  5. ^ a b c d e f Schulz, Max F (1985). Paradise Preserved: Recreations of Eden in Eighteenth– and Nineteenth– Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 306. ISBN 9780521301732. LCCN 85005959. OCLC 11867731. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  6. ^ a b Peters, Lisa N (1996). James McNeill Whistler. New York City: Smithmark. p. 37. ISBN 9781880908709. OCLC 40598527. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c Freer Gallery of Art; Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; Wayne State University's Library System (2014). "The Story of the Beautiful". Visual History → In London. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  8. ^ Ault, Alicia. "How Golden Peacocks on a Dining Room Wall Destroyed a Longstanding Friendship in Victorian Society". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
  9. ^ Hogarty, Sarah Bailey (May 30, 2012). "FRAME WORK: The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor) by James McNeill Whistler". De Young. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  10. ^ Whistler, James McNeill (1890). "'Noblesse Oblige'". The Gentle Art of Making Enemies. New York City: Stokes. pp. 174–175. ISBN 9780486218755. OCLC 181673833.
  11. ^ Anderson, Ronald K; Koval, Anne (July 15, 2002). James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth. New York City: Carroll & Graf. p. 209. ISBN 9780786710324. LCCN 95008187. OCLC 249340890. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  12. ^ Elizabeth Robins, Pennell; Pennell, Joseph (1921). The Whistler Journal. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co. pp. 109–111. LCCN 22000469. OCLC 1878264. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  13. ^ Hobbs, Susan (1980). The Whistler Peacock Room (4th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Freer Gallery of Art. p. 15. ISBN 9780934686341. LCCN 80020516. OCLC 6626888. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  14. ^ BOWLEY, GRAHAM (February 10, 2015). "Freer Gallery to Close for Renovations in January". New York Times. New York. Retrieved February 10, 2016.
  15. ^ Guducci, Marc (May 15, 2015). "Darren Waterston's Filthy Lucre Is Whistler's Peacock Room on Acid". New York Times. New York. Retrieved February 10, 2016.
  16. ^ Shindler, Michael (March 2, 2020). "The Art of Madness and Mystery". Church Life Journal. The McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame. Retrieved March 10, 2020.

Further reading

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