Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen
date: label: Date
content: 1864
name: label: Artist
content: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
notes: label: Label
content: In the mid-1860s Whistler undertook a series of works in which recognizably English models in exotic costumes are depicted as Japanese courtesans surrounded by objects from the artist’s personal collection of Asian art. Here, he presents the Irish model Joanna Hiffernan in the guise of a Japanese courtesan, contemplating a print from Utagawa Hiroshige’s Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces, an iconic series of meisho-e, or images of notable places. When Charles Lang Freer first saw this painting in 1902, he had acquired an impressive collection of Japanese prints and paintings as well as hundreds of works by Whistler. Freer declared that Caprice was “one of the most perfect things in composition and colouring in the whole range of Mr. Whistler’s art.”
label: Provenance
content: 1864-Before 1892
label: Provenance
content: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), painted in 1864 [1]
label: Provenance
content: By 1892-1904
label: Provenance
content: Cyril Flower, The Lord Battersea (1843-1907), method of acquisition unknown [2]
label: Provenance
content: 1904-1920
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer, purchased from The Lord Battersea, through William Merchant and Company, London [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer [4]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See note 2.
label: Provenance
content: [2] When Cyril Flower purchased the painting from Whistler remains unknown. However, Flowers owned it by 1892 when he loaned it to the Goupil Gallery's exhibition "Nocturnes, Marines, & Chevalet Pieces," see: Goupil Gallery, "Nocturnes, Marines, & Chevalet Pieces: Small Collection Kindly Lent by Their Owners" [exhibition catalogue] (London: Goupil Gallery, March 1892), no. 14. Flower sold the painting to Charles Lang Freer in 1904, see note 3.
label: Provenance
content: [3] See Voucher No. 20, July 19, 1904, from Freer to Cyril Flower through William Merchant & Co, Box 112, Folder 9, Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, copy in object file.
label: Provenance
content: [4] 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.
label: Provenance
content: Research completed August 9, 2022.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Ruffled Feathers: Creating Whistler's Peacock Room (July 13, 2024 to January 21, 2027)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change (November 18, 2023 to May 4, 2024)
label: Exhibition History
content: An American in London: Whistler and the Thames (May 3 to August 17, 2014)
label: Exhibition History
content: Freer & Whistler: Points of Contact (February 23, 2008 to January 3, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Pretty Women: Freer and the Ideal of Feminine Beauty (August 13, 2005 to September 17, 2006)
label: Exhibition History
content: Mr. Whistler's Galleries: Avant-garde in Victorian London, 1883 (November 20, 2003 to April 4, 2004)
label: Exhibition History
content: Art for Art's Sake (July 23, 1997 to January 24, 2008)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler & Japan (May 14, 1995 to January 1, 1996)
label: Exhibition History
content: Freer North Corridor (May 9. 1993 to January 3, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Arrangement in Yellow and Gold: Paintings by James McNeill Whistler (March 14, 1986 to April 1, 1987)
label: Exhibition History
content: American Paintings: James McNeill Whistler (January 17, 1985 to (end date unknown))
label: Exhibition History
content: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art: Artist and Patron (May 11, 1984 to January 17, 1985)
label: Exhibition History
content: American Paintings: James McNeill Whistler 1834-1903 (September 16, 1981 to March 26, 1984)
label: Exhibition History
content: American Paintings: James McNeill Whistler (November 11, 1976 to March 18, 1981)
label: Exhibition History
content: Paintings by James McNeill Whistler (August 1, 1974 to December 5, 1975)
label: Exhibition History
content: Portraits and Figure Painting by James McNeill Whistler (October 2, 1972 to May 2, 1973)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler Paintings (October 15, 1969 to September 25, 1971)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler Paintings (September 8, 1961 to October 15, 1969)
label: Exhibition History
content: American Paintings (September 8, 1961 to May 2, 1973)
label: Exhibition History
content: American Paintings (June 9, 1960 to September 8, 1961)
label: Exhibition History
content: Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 10 and 11 (February 25, 1956 to November 3, 1959)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Whistler Oil Paintings, Gallery 3, 1955 (December 16, 1955 to February 25, 1956)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Works of Whistler (September 22, 1947 to April 11, 1955)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, American Oil Paintings, Gallery 3, 1947 (September 25, 1947 to April 12, 1955)
label: Exhibition History
content: American Paintings, J.A.McN. Whistler (May 2, 1923 to February 12, 1944)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, University of Michigan Club, Detroit, 1914 (1914)
label: Exhibition History
content: Paintings in Oil and Pastel by James A. McNeill Whistler (March 15 to May 31, 1910)
label: Exhibition History
content: Exposition des Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler (May 1905)
label: Exhibition History
content: 78th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (Spring or Autumn of 1904)
label: Exhibition History
content: Nocturnes, Marines and Chevalet Pieces (March through April, 1892)
label: Exhibition History
content: Sixth Exhibition of the Society of French Artists (1873)
label: Exhibition History
content: 97th Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (January 1, 1865 to December 31, 1865)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Cyril Flower (1843-1907) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: United States
topic: label: Topic
content: screen
label: Topic
content: United States
label: Topic
content: ukiyo-e
label: Topic
content: American Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: On View
content: West Building (Freer Gallery of Art), Gallery 11: Ruffled Feathers: Creating Whistler's Peacock Room
label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1904.75a
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Oil on wood panel
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (painting): 50.1 × 68.5 cm (19 3/4 × 27 in)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (frame (F1905.329)): 76.1 × 93.3 cm (29 15/16 × 36 3/4 in)