The Princess from the Land of Porcelain (<em>La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine</em>)
date: label: Date
content: 1863-1865
name: label: Artist
content: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
notes: label: Description
content: Standing figure of a woman in a kimono, holding a fan.
label: Signatures
content: Signature: Whistler 1864, at upper left corner
label: Label
content: This painting, which hangs over the mantel in the Peacock Room, was part of a series of costume pictures undertaken by Whistler in the mid-1860s in which western models appear in Asian dress, surrounded by Chinese and Japanese objects from Whistler's own collections. He modeled the princess on Christina Spartali, a young woman of Greek descent who is dressed in a kimono and surrounded by luxurious objects that suggest an imaginary "land of porcelain." Not intended as a portrait, the painting instead demonstrated a new ideal of beauty, one derived from Japanese ukiyo-e prints and the elongated figures painted on Chinese porcelain. Whistler never visited Asia, and his appropriation of eastern objects was intended to evoke the temporal and spatial distance of a far off realm.
label: Label
content: Several years before the Peacock Room was ever conceived, Frederick Leyland bought this painting from Whistler. After purchasing a new house in 1875, Leyland hung it over the mantelpiece in the dining room. He intended to transform the space into a porcelainzimmer, an opulent room lined with shelves to hold prized pieces from his extensive collection of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. Whistler suggested some changes to the color scheme of the room which would, he told Leyland, better harmonize with the palette of the Princesse. The final result, of course, was Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room. After Leyland's death in 1892, the Princesse was purchased by the Glasgow collector William Burrell, who subsequently sold it to Charles Lang Freer in 1903, the year of Whistler's death.
label: Provenance
content: Dante Gabriel Rossetti's (1828-1882) studio, London [1]
label: Provenance
content: Unidentified collector, purchased from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's studio [2]
label: Provenance
content: From at least 1872 to 1892
label: Provenance
content: Frederick Richards Leyland (1831-1892), London, purchased from the estate of the unidentified collector, from at least 1872 [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 1892
label: Provenance
content: Alexander Reid (1854-1928), Glasgow, purchased at auction, Christie's, London, May 28, 1892, no. 39 [4]
label: Provenance
content: From ca. 1894-1895 to 1903
label: Provenance
content: Sir William Burrell (1861-1958), Glasgow, purchased from Alexander Reid ca. 1894-1895 [5]
label: Provenance
content: From 1903 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Sir William Burrell in 1903 [6]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [7]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Curatorial Remark 5, Susan Hobbs, 1977, and Curatorial Remark 11, Lee Glazer, May 25, 2010, in the object record.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [4] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [5] See Original Whistler List, Paintings, page 10, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [6] Purchased by C.L. Freer on August 20, 1903, as the "The Princess of Porcelain," see notes 1 and 5.
label: Provenance
content: [7] 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: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: The Peacock Room Comes to America [2022] (September 3, 2022 - ongoing)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Peacock Room Revealed (January 29 to April 15, 2019)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Peacock Room in Blue and White [2019-2022] (May 18, 2019 to June 1, 2022)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Peacock Room Comes to America [2017-2019] (October 14, 2017 to January 2, 2019)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Lost Symphony: Whistler & the Perfection of Art (January 16 to May 30, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinamania (2016) (July 9, 2016 to June 4, 2017)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Peacock Room Comes to America [2011-2016] (April 9, 2011 to January 4, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Peacock Room (May 2, 1923 to February 21, 2011)
label: Exhibition History
content: Exposition des Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler (May 1905)
label: Exhibition History
content: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler (February 23 to March 22, 1904)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Seventy-Seventh Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (1903)
label: Exhibition History
content: Glasgow International Exhibition (May 2 to November 4, 1901)
label: Exhibition History
content: Second Exhibition of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers (May to July, 1899)
label: Exhibition History
content: Third International Exhibition of the City of Venice (1899)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (1896)
label: Exhibition History
content: World's Columbian Exposition (May 1 to October 30, 1893)
label: Exhibition History
content: Second Exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, London (1892)
label: Exhibition History
content: Second Annual Exhibition of Modern Pictures, Royal Pavillion Gallery, Brighton (1875)
label: Exhibition History
content: International Exhibition, South Kensington, London (1872)
label: Exhibition History
content: London International Exhibition, 1872 (May 1 to October 19, 1872)
label: Exhibition History
content: Twelfth Annual Exhibition of Pictures by Artists of the French and Flemish Schools (April 1865 to December 1866)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Salon, 1865 (1865)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Studio (1828-1882)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Frederick Richards Leyland (1831-1892)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Alexander Reid (1854-1928)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Sir William Burrell (1861-1958) (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: woman
label: Topic
content: fan
label: Topic
content: princess
label: Topic
content: United States
label: Topic
content: American Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: On View
content: West Building (Freer Gallery of Art), Gallery 12: The Peacock Room in Blue and White
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: F1903.91a-b
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Oil on canvas
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (painting): 201.5 x 116.1 cm (79 5/16 x 45 11/16 in)