Thomas Jeckyll, an interior designer and architect, was close to finishing his big 1876 commission: designing a dining room for shipping magnate Frederick Leyland to display his collection of blue and white porcelain. The famous American painter James McNeill Whistler, a friend of Leyland’s, was also working in the house, adding embellishments and decoration to the front hallway. He suggested to Jeckyll that a little yellow painted on the walls would be just the thing to tie in the centerpiece artwork: La princesse du pays de la porcelaine. This portrait of a sinuous and elegant princess dressed in a kimono defined the room.
Jeckyll left for other pursuits, although Leyland authorized Whistler to paint dabs of color into Jeckyll’s work while Leyland was away for business.
After that, what happened foreshadows Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. Alone at the house, Whistler fancied the room with gold paint and peacock feather designs on the ceiling. He painted with a Prussian blue above the leather wainscoting, and he created ornate peacocks in gilded paint on the shutters. Proud as…well…a peacock of his work and eager to show it off, he invited friends (including the press) over for lavish parties in the room.
The story goes that Whistler excitedly informed his out-of-town patron that he transformed the room into a state of glorious perfection. Then he presented a very large bill. The wrangle that followed over payment and permission is famously illustrated on the wall across from La princesse: two showy peacocks in disagreement. Whistler painted one peacock in ruffled feathers that conjured up Leyland’s typical attire, standing with plumage in full array amidst a mass of spilled coins. The other peacock is poised with a curled forelock similar to Whistler’s hairstyle. Here is a spat, immortalized and available to see by anyone who visits Washington, D.C.’s Freer Gallery.
Whistler titled the mural, “Art and Money; Or The Story of a Room.” Leyland must have been at least as amused as he was insulted because he allowed the painting to stay. (But I like to think he wore fewer ruffles after that.)
I wasn’t too worried about the original room designer, Jeckyll. All in a day’s work, I assumed. But then I read this from his biography, "His disastrous experience with James Whistler over the decoration of Leyland’s dining room (the notorious ‘Peacock’ room) precipitated a mental collapse, and he spent the last years of his life in a Norwich asylum."
