Whistler's Amazing Peacock Room, Freer Gallery

 

I had the opportunity to visit the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. this week.  This museum, on the National Mall, is named after Charles Lang Freer who donated his extensive collection of art, including much ancient Asian art, to the Smithsonian in the early 20th century.  In one room of the Freer Gallery is The Peacock Room, which was moved intact from Freer's home in Detroit after his death in 1919.

The story of the Peacock Room is an over-the-top cautionary tale of the perils of contracting with artists.  The dining room was originally constructed by architect Thomas Jeckyll for the shipping magnate (and Pre-Raphaelite patron) Frederick Leyland; it included an elaborate lattice of shelves to display the owner's porcelain and the walls were hung with gilded leather.  Leyland had also commissioned James McNeill Whistler to paint the portrait over the fireplace, "The Princess From the Land of Porcelain" (first pic).  The room was nearly done when Jeckyll asked Whistler for advice on the color of the shutters (see below).  From this point, and with Leyland's approval (who shortly after departed on business), a series a small color adjustments were made to the room by Whistler.

But then Whistler stayed on, becoming increasingly enamored of the alterations he was making to the room (and possibly also of Leyland's wife), including gilding the ceiling and shelving, painting the leather prussian blue, and painting dramatic gold peacocks on the shutters.   Whistler wrote to Leyland saying that the dining room was "really alive with beauty — brilliant and gorgeous while at the same time delicate and refined to the last degree," and that the changes he had made were past imagining. "I assure you," he said, "you can have no more idea of the ensemble in its perfection gathered from what you last saw on the walls than you could have of a complete opera judging from a third finger exercise!" 

When Leyland got the bill for the "expanded" project he did not authorize, he refused to pay and the two got involved in a bitter lawsuit (is there any other kind?).  Whistler's revenge was his final modification to the room, two large peacocks fighting over a pile of silver at the end of room (pic above).  He called the mural "Art and Money; or, The Story of the Room." 

Years later, after Leyland's death, Freer, a long-time patron of Whistler, purchased the room (in 1904) and installed it in an addition on his house in the U.S.   The room is considered by many to be Whistler's greatest creation. 

William de Morgan Tiles

William Morris Notebooks

pages from Merton Abbey Dye Book, 1882-91

Fruit and Daisy

I'd be so happy if my travel notebooks displayed a fraction of the beauty and grace of these "lab" notebooks from Morris & Company.  Does anyone remember this post, my third?  A moleskine inspiration....

The pictures are from Essential William Morris, William Morris by Himself, William Morris and Morris & Co., and William Morris Decor and Design.

"It's so McKim, Mead and Depot"

That's what my friend Dan said when he saw my recent tile job on my brick fireplace surround.  Orangey-greenish mosaic tile from Home Depot grouted with pre-mixed grey grout.  The walls are C2 "Sisal" and are not quite as green as they look in picture.  My house is a Sears American Four-Square.

and a partial "before" pic....

Happy Earth Day!

Need and Sorrow and the "Angel of Help" -- John La Farge

I grew up in North Easton, Massachusetts, a place most architects recognize as a mecca for anyone studying H. H. Richardson, F. L. Olmstead, John La Farge and other important architects and designers of the 19th century.  After the thousands of hours spent as a child in Richardson's famous Ames Free Library, maybe it is no surprise I absorbed his aesthetic as my own.  On a walk last weekend, my dad and I stopped by the Unity Church (also designed conceptualized by Richardson, designed by donor's nephew John Ames Mitchell) to see the two famous stained glass windows by John La Farge, the "Angel of Help" and "Wisdom" windows.

The 1886 "Angel of Help" window was donated by Frederick Lothrop Ames in memory of his only sister who died suddenly at age 46, Helen Angier Ames (1836-1882).  Helen is the one Eastoners have to thank for their incredible public library.  Painter, muralist (Trinity Church), and stained glass artist John La Farge used his pioneering technique of layering glass, creating an opalescent background of fused broken glass jewels which dramatically bend light (he patented his invention of opalescent glass in 1880).  Above you can see Helen's jeweled sarcophagus being carried to heaven by angels. Below, the magenta Angel of Help is emptying her pitcher into vessels of "Need" and "Sorrow" (written in pink above woman's heads).  This window is considered by many to be La Farge's masterpiece (another picture of this window can be seen at the top of La Farge's wikipedia page, linked above).

The photographs are from the Unity Church website.

The Art in the Machine

I was recently given an extraordinary book, The Machinery of Life by David S. Goodsell, by a relative who said the pictures (watercolor paintings) reminded him of my William Morris wallpaper.  The paintings are of the cells and molecules in the human body, all rendered in stunning detail by a scientist with a keen artistic vision.  I can see it, although I think we lean more toward turn of the century Art Nouveau style than Morris Arts and Crafts.  It's nice to imagine the inside of our bodies looking like this. 

 Marigold and Pea?  (Cytoplasm and Cell Wall)

 Vine and Morning Glory? (Cellular compartments)

 Lupin?  (Actin and Myosin filaments in our muscles)

 Sprout? (Blood clotting)

Sweet Pea and Lichen? (Programmed Cell Death)

If you want to learn about how our bodies work, reading this popular book is a brilliant place to start.

Harriet Finck, fractals, and hidden gems...

In Harriet Finck's exhibit "Visual Midrash: Text as Form" the artist explores the written Hebrew word; sometimes the words are written directly on the paper but often they are buried deep within the paintings.  These works of paper tell, as per the artist's statement, stories of birth and death, angels and dreams, despair and redemption.  I don't see the words, even in the closest close-up below, but it is not a language with which I am familiar.  These paintings remind me of aboriginal paintings of the Dreamtime.  I would happily put one of these stunning pieces on a wall in my house (all click to enlarge). 

a triptych

a diptych

another painting

closer....

closer....

and closer....it's fascinating and equally beautiful at every scale....a fractal painting 

Above, detail of painting.....below, detail of carpet in art deco bar in South Beach.  In scientific terminology, an example of convergent evolution.

....and the hidden gem?  the local university art gallery.

Ed Mezitt's PJM Rhododendron

The first spring rhododendron that blooms in New England flowered this past week.  It is a hydrid called PJM that is everywhere, its popularity entrenched by the fact that it blooms weeks before most other azaleas and rhododendrons -- an easy hardy plant.  The PJM was hybridized by Ed Mezitt in Weston, Massachusetts, in the fall of 1945.  Ed named the new plant PJM in honor of his father, Peter J. Mezitt, the following spring.

The father Peter had received a plant specimen (believed to be R. dauricum) collected by missionaries in the mountainous region between Mongolia and Kazakhstan (the 19th century was the heyday of missionary/botanist collecting in Asia).   Ed crossed this plant with R. minus Carolinianum.  The American Rhododendron Society speculates that the PJM Group is probably the most widely planted rhododendron in the United States today.

With all the forsythia and daffodils blooming at the same time, pink and yellow never looked so good together.

How can I have enough of life and love?

The Earthly Paradise....Live.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) the BBC Symphony Orchestra will broadcast a new piece by Ian McQueen based on William Morris's great work The Earthly Paradise.  This was the collection of poetry that brought Morris widespread fame and popularity and resulted, upon the death of Tennyson, in an invitation to be England's Poet Laureate.  (He declined, I wish I knew why.)  From the BBC: "The search for the land where 'none grow old' guides the twists and turns of William Morris's The Earthly Paradise. Ian McQueen's work for chorus and large orchestra evokes the poem's extraordinary world, surges with erotic charge, and conjures up Morris's magical vision of Iceland's landscape and sagas."

From my reading of the BBC website, the performance will be broadcast live at 19:00 GMT which according to my detailed calculations will be 2PM on the East Coast (adjust to your time zone).  Going to the BBCRadio3 website and clicking on the LISTEN icon in upper right should work (hopefully).

The Earthly Paradise follows the story of a band of (erotically charged?) medieval wanderers searching for a land of everlasting life, but instead they discover a lost  colony of Greeks with whom they exchange tales.  While Morris illustrated the published edition of his stories in his typical style (see excerpt above), his friend Edward Burne-Jones painted scenes from the many stories.

Here is Perseus and the Graiae painted by Burne-Jones in 1892.  His Perseus looks a whole lot sweeter than Sam Worthington in Clash of the Titans (below) although they do appear to be wearing the same outfit.

Burne-Jones also seems to have envisioned the three witches quite differently.  I'd much rather be a Burne-Jones witch.

An earlier Earthly Paradise post about the love story of Cupid and Psyche. In case you need a refresher on your myths....another earlier post. I think I'll go see the movie.