The Peacock Room in Blue and White

The Peacock Room is American artist James McNeill Whistler’s (1834–1903) greatest interior. He famously covered this dining room with floor-to-ceiling peacock-inspired designs, including a mural depicting himself and his patron Frederick Leyland (1831–1892) as dueling fowl. Whistler envisioned variations of the peacock and its plumage in blue, green, and gold as the ideal backdrop for Leyland’s prized collection of Kangxi-period (1662–1722) Chinese porcelains.

Like Whistler, Leyland collected elaborately decorated blue-and-white vases, plates, and containers from Jingdezhen, China. In the late thirteenth century, Jingdezhen was the world center for blue-and-white porcelain production and export. By the late sixteenth century, the city was exporting porcelains to Europe to satisfy a craze for these wares that peaked again in the 1870s when Whistler and Leyland collected them.

To recreate the room in its Victorian splendor, the museum has installed its collection of Kangxi-period porcelains on the room’s north and east walls (with the fireplace and the windows). We also recently partnered with Jingdezhen potters to fashion reproductions of the collection for the south and west walls. Immerse yourself in the Peacock Room as the Leylands would have 150 years ago.