Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1876
Collection: British Museum, London
Accession Number: 1958,0208.3-36
Medium: pen and dark brown ink
Support: cream laid paper with watermark "WHATMAN"
Size: 245 x 198 mm (9 5/8 x 7 13/16")
Signature: none
Inscription: r: engraved heading '30, Lombard Street, London, E.C.'; BRITISH MUSEUM stamp

Composition

Peacock designs; (a) feathers on panel; (b) plan of ceiling, British Museum
Peacock designs; (a) feathers on panel; (b) plan of ceiling, British Museum
Peacock designs; (c) feathers on panels; (d) feathers on panels and ceiling coffers, British Museum
Peacock designs; (c) feathers on panels; (d) feathers on panels and ceiling coffers, British Museum
Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, Freer Gallery of Art
Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, Freer Gallery of Art

In 1873 the banker William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916) bought Aubrey House in Campden Hill and Whistler put forward suggestions for its decoration. Whistler used ideas of designs derived from Peacocks, which had been considered for Aubrey House, when he went on to do the Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room [YMSM 178] for Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) in 1876.

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