Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'THE "Gold Scab." Eruption in FRiLTHY Lucre' (1879, Whistler). 1
• 'A Satirical Painting of a Gentleman styled "The Creditor" ' (1880, Sotheby's). 2
• 'Gold Scab' (1879, Whistler). 3
• 'Arrangement in Green and Gold' (1900, Goupil). 4
• 'The Gold Scab' (1980, YMSM). 5

'The Gold Scab' is the preferred title.

Description

This is a satirical portrait of Whistler's Liverpool patron F. R. Leyland, mocking Leyland's money and his addiction to frilled shirts. He is caricatured as a peacock seated at the piano, on a model of Whistler's White House. Whistler was obliged to sell the White House after he went bankrupt in 1879, and blamed this on Leyland's refusal to pay 2000 guineas for the decoration of Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room [YMSM 178] in 1876-1877.

Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) saw it in 1902 and described it as follows:

'Mr Jacomb Hood, the Artist, Has the burlesque of Mr Leyland - Large canvas -

A grotesque peacock, sitting upon the peak of a white house, his hands which are great scaly talons are playing a piano, his feet are claws and run down in the foreground, from between the feathers of his body and the scales of feet and hands golden guineas are exuding - The piece of music being played is called "An irruption in frilthy lucre".

He wears frills in shirt front and has on very short black trunks in imitation of knickerbockers.' 6

Site

The White House, which figures conspicuously in this caricature, was designed by Edward William Godwin (1833-1886) as a house and studio for Whistler in Tite Street, Chelsea. Modifications made to the design and escalating costs contributed to Whistler's bankruptcy.

Sitter

This is a satirical portrait of Whistler's Liverpool patron Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) , in which Leyland's money and his addiction to frilled shirts are the subject of especial derision. He is caricatured as a peacock seated at the piano, on a model of Whistler's White House. Whistler was obliged to sell the White House after he went bankrupt in 1879, and blamed this on Leyland's refusal to pay 2000 guineas for the decoration of the Peacock Room in 1876-1877 (see Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room [YMSM 178]).

The butterfly signature has a sting on its tail, a barb which often appeared on the butterfly signature in Whistler's letters after this, but never on paintings.

F. R. Leyland took his mistress, Rosa Laura Caldecutt (1843?-1890), to the White House a week after Whistler's bankruptcy sale at Sotheby & Co. on 12 February 1880. They were shown around:

'Watson did not know who he was but knew him by his resemblance to the Gold Scab & by Mrs C's & his interest in the Lobsters / at which they looked & then at one another smiling quizzically - though not unhappily quite - perhaps to the Lighthearted this is fame & reputation such as he has.' 7

Comments

A careful copy in charcoal, watercolour, and gouache, said to be by Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) (whose father was among Whistler’s major creditors at the time of his bankruptcy), is now in the Art Institute of Chicago. 8