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

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YMSM 178
Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room

Artist: James McNeill Whistler (decoration), Thomas Jeckyll (architecture)
Date: 1876-1877
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1904.61
Medium: oil paint and gold leaf
Support: leather and wood
Size: height 425 x length 1010 x width 608 cm (167 5/8 x 398 x 239 1/2"); south end of room, 180.3 x 472.5 cm (71 x 186"); left shutter, 304.8 x 137.2 cm (120 x 54"); centre shutter 369.5 x 141.0 cm (145½ x 55½"); right shutter, 304.8 x 137.2 cm (120 x 54")
Signature: signed with 4 butterflies, (1) at the top of the right shutter of the central window, (2) in the southwest corner of the ceiling, (3) on the upper left panel of the top of the sideboard, and (4) at the left end of the long panel over the sideboard
Inscription: none

Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room

Provenance

  • 1877: installed at 49 Princes Gate, London, for Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) ;
  • 1892: after Leyland's death, 49 Princes Gate was auctioned by Osborn & Mercer, London, 17 June 1892, but failed to find a buyer (withdrawn at £20,100);
  • 1894: 49 Prince's Gate was bought for £25,000 by Blanche Marie Georgiana Watney (1837-1915) , of Thorney Lodge, Palace Gate, widow of James Watney, the brewer and Liberal MP;
  • 1904: early in the year, bought through Brown & Phillips, London dealers, for £10,000 by Obach, London dealers, who had it dismantled, and exhibited it;
  • 1904: before the exhibition opened, the room was sold on 16 May to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) , for £8400, and shipped from Southampton on 10 September;
  • 1906: installed in Freer's house, 33 Ferry Avenue, Detroit, during March 1906; 1
  • 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

J. E. Mitchell after Whistler, 'The Peacock Room', engraving, The Art Journal, 1892
J. E. Mitchell after Whistler, 'The Peacock Room', engraving, The Art Journal, 1892
Osborn & Mercer, The Peacock Room, sale catalogue, 1892
Osborn & Mercer, The Peacock Room, sale catalogue, 1892
The Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1920s
The Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1920s

The history of the creation, travels and vicissitudes of the Peacock Room are discussed under Date and Technical Description (Conservation) above, and Exhibitions, below.

Exhibitions

  • 1877: Exhibited in situ by Whistler in January and February 1877.
  • 1904: Exhibited by Messrs Obach June until mid-July 1904, with porcelain from the collection of Alexander Thomas Hollingsworth (b. ca 1848-d.1928) on the shelves.
  • 1906-1919: Accessible for selected visitors at Freer’s home in Detroit.
  • Since May 1923: On view at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Notes:

1: See Merrill 1998 [more] , pp. 317-328, for the protracted process of the transaction, and pp. 338-42, for the installation at Freer’s residence.

Last updated: 20th May 2021 by Margaret