The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Peacock designs ... date from 1876, when Whistler was working on Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room y178 for Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892).

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

The drawings are catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 579).

Images

Subject

Titles

The subject of the drawings has previously been identified as Five Designs for Aubrey House. ¹ This was inaccurate (the designs were for 49 Prince's Gate, not Aubrey House). The current title is descriptive and accurate : Peacock designs; (a) feathers on panel; (b) plan of ceiling; (c) feathers on panels; (d) feathers on panels and ceiling coffers.

Site

Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room y178 was originally sited at the house of Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) at 49 Prince's Gate, London.

Technique

Composition

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

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 y178 for Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) in 1876.

History

Provenance

• 1876: possibly given to William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916);
• 1916-1958: passed by family descent to Rachel Alexander (1875-1964) and Jean Ingelow Alexander (1877-1972);
• 1958: presented to the British Museum, London.

There is some doubt about the early provenance. The Pennells reproduced it as either in the Estate of Frances Leyland (1834-1910) or owned by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924). ² The latter suggestion is incorrect but it is possible that it was acquired from Mrs Leyland by Alexander or from her estate by his family.

Exhibitions

Not exhibited in Whistler's life time.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 579) as 'Peacock designs (a) feathers on panel; (b) plan of ceiling; (c) feathers on panels; (d) feathers on panels and ceiling coffers'.
• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (room, cat. no. 178).

Monographs

• Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, pp. 216-17, repr. fig. 5.26.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, repr.f.p.104 as "Sketch of Detail of Peacock Room" and "Sketch of Stairway at Leyland's House" in poss. Estate of Mrs.Leyland, and f.p.105 as "Sketches of Peacock Room" in poss. Mrs.J.C.Gardner (sic), side d, repr.f.p.104 as "Sketch of Detail of Peacock Room " in poss. Estate of Mrs.Leyland (sic).

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• Young, Andrew McLaren, James McNeill Whistler: An Exhibition of Paintings and Other Works, Organized by the Arts Council of Great Britain and the English-Speaking Union of the United States, London and New York, 1960 (cat. no. 114d) as 'Five Designs for Aubrey House'.
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, repr. p. 66, fig. 159.