Design for the Coloring of a Room

Object Details

• Artist

  James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

• Description

  A schematic design for the decoration of a room, with the floor, skirting board, wall, and ceiling depicted as planar bands of color; signed with the butterfly at right, above the skirting board.

• Signatures

  Red butterfly at lower right

• Inscriptions

  In Whistler's handwriting on their respective parts of the sketch: "Ceiling" - "Cornice" - "Wall Venetian Red - White - Yellow ochre" - "Skirting board - Venetian Red - White - Raw Sienna." "Waxed Floor."

• Paper/Support

  On cold-pressed, wove paper.

• Label

  Of all Whistler's interiors, only the elaborate Peacock Room survives. But, most of his rooms were much simpler than The Peacock Room; we know them through sketches like this one. Whistler prepared the walls of his rooms as he would a canvas, layering several colors on top of one another to give the surface life and interest. He usually relied on distemper, a water-based paint, but avoided opaque commercial products, mixing evanescent colors of his own.

• Provenance

  To 1901

  Frederick Keppel and Co., London, England, and New York to 1901 [1]

  From 1901 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Frederick Keppel and Co., New York, in 1901 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Whistler List, Paintings, pg. 32, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Mr. Whistler's Galleries: Avant-garde in Victorian London, 1883 (November 20, 2003 to April 4, 2004)

  James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art: Whistler as Decorator (May 11, 1984 to December 5, 1984)

  Drawings by James McNeill Whistler (August 1, 1974 to April 14, 1975)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Frederick Keppel and Co. (1868-1940) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  United States

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Drawing

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1880s, 1870s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Frederick Keppel and Co.

• Place

  United States

• Topic

  Art, Iron oxide red, Bone black, Zinc white, Vermilion, Yellow ocher, Charles Lang Freer collection, Mars pigment, American Art, Raw sienna, Prussian blue, Raw umber, Burnt sienna

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Drawings