The Peacock Room at 49 Prince's Gate

Pickford Robert Waller British
 Relates to James McNeill Whistler American

Not on view

The interior designer Waller admired James McNeil Whistler and here freely records part of a famous interior created in 1877 for the London house of Frederick Leyland, a Liverpool shipping magnate. When the house was being remodelled, Thomas Jeckyll designed an Anglo-Japanese dining room that featured antique Spanish leather on the walls, with spindeled wooden shelves built to hold Leyland's Chinese porcelain collection. When Jeckyll fell ill, James McNeill Whistler volunteered to complete the decorations then, at his own volition, painted the leather blue and added extensive gold ornament, angering Leyland. This watercolor brightens the hues, and shows mirrors behind some of the shelves, possibly added by Leyland's heirs. In 1904, the collector Charles Freer purchased the room for his Detroit mansion, and it now is installed at the Freer Gallery, Washington DC.

The Peacock Room at 49 Prince's Gate, Pickford Robert Waller (British, London 1849–1930 Bournemouth), Watercolor over graphite

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