The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Whistler drew the Fighting Peacocks about 1884/1885 and gave it to Robert Goodloe Harper Pennington (1854 or 1855-d. 1920) , who gave it to Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924).

Fighting Peacocks, I.S. Gardner Museum

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 992).

Images

Subject

Site

Fighting Peacocks, I.S. Gardner Museum

Panel of Fighting Peacocks in The Peacock Room, Freer Gallery of Art

Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room y178 was at that time the dining room of the house of Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) in Prince's Gate, London. Whistler did not have access to the room by this date, and may have drawn this from memory.

Technique

Composition

Fighting Peacocks, I.S. Gardner Museum

Panel of Fighting Peacocks in The Peacock Room, Freer Gallery of Art

A drawing, possibly from memory, of the large painting on the end wall of Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room y178.

Hadley considered the drawings were made in preparation for the decoration, but this is unlikely. ¹

History

Provenance

• ca 1884: drawn for Robert Goodloe Harper Pennington (1854 or 1855-d. 1920);
• 1904: given by Pennington to Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924), Boston;
• 1924: bequeathed to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 992) as 'Fighting Peacocks'.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, repr. f.p. 200.

Books, General

• Carter, Morris, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court, Boston and New York, 1925, pp. 103-05.
• Hadley, Rollin van N. (ed.), Drawings, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Boston, 1968, pp. 37-41, no. 18.
• Smith, Corinna Lindon, Interesting People, Norman, Oklahoma, 1962, p. 156.

Websites

• Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum website at https://www.gardnermuseum.org.