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

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Four Panels from the Entrance Hall at 49 Princes Gate

For Panels from the Entrance Hall at 49 Princes Gate date from 1876.

Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) commissioned decorations for the hall in his London house at 49 Princes Gate.

The 2000 Survey of London gives extensive details of the development of Princes Gate, including No. 49, and the designs by Jeckyll and Whistler, describing the Whistler's designs for the hall as including 'a series of panels along the dado. Embellished with pink and white flowers on a background of dutch metal (imitation gold-leaf) under a lightly distressed green glaze, these were in progress in March 1876.' 1

According to Alan Summerly Cole (1846-1934), he saw the 'successful' colouring of the hall on 24 March 1876. 2 About this time Whistler also painted the panels of the dado up the staircase. He lived at Princes Gate through the summer. On 17 August 1876 Leyland sent Whistler £50, and suggested Whistler should wait to see how the gilding on the stairs would wear. 3

Notes:

1: Greenacombe, John (ed.), 'Princes Gate and Princes Gardens: the Freake Estate, Development by C. J. Freake', in Survey of London: Volume 45, Knightsbridge, London, 2000, pp. 191-205, in British History Online website at http://www.british-history.ac.uk.

2: Pennell 1908 [more] , vol. 1, p. 203. Ms copies with variations, GUW #12986, #13132, #03432.

3: GUW #02569.

Last updated: 13th November 2019 by Margaret