'Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room', painted by James McNeill Whistler in 1876–1877, is the entire decorative scheme he made for the dining room of Frederick R. Leyland's London townhouse. Turquoise, azure, and gold peacock-feather motifs cover ceiling, walls, doors, and porcelain shelves, with Whistler's painting 'The Princess from the Land of Porcelain' presiding from above the fireplace. Leyland disputed the bill and Whistler retaliated with a mural of two fighting peacocks. In 1904 the entire room was bought by the American industrialist Charles Lang Freer and permanently reinstalled in Washington, D.C., where it forms the centrepiece of the National Museum of Asian Art (formerly Freer Gallery).

Exhibition Venue

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Washington, D.C., United States