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  • Design for the Coloring of a Room
  • Design for the Coloring of a Room

Design for the Coloring of a Room

A schematic design for the decoration of a room, with the floor, skirting board, wall, and ceiling depicted as planar bands of color; signed with the butterfly at right, above the skirting board.
Maker nationality and date
1834-1903
Date(s)
ca. 1883-1886
Medium
Watercolor on paper
Dimension(s)
H x W: 25.2 x 17.8 cm (9 15/16 x 7 in)
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Object Number
F1901.168
Production location
Possibly England, London
Theme
Design
Signature(s)
Red butterfly at lower right
Inscription(s)
In Whistler's handwriting on their respective parts of the sketch: "Ceiling" - "Cornice" - "Wall Venetian Red - White - Yellow ochre" - "Skirting board - Venetian Red - White - Raw Sienna." "Waxed Floor."

In Mr. Keppel's handwriting on back: "Design for the coloring of a room. A Symphony in red, white and yellow!"
Provenance
Selected Curatorial Remarks

1. In Whistler's handwriting on their respective parts of the sketch: "Ceiling" - "Cornice" - "Wall Venetian Red - White - Yellow ochre" - "Skirting board - Venetian Red - White - Raw Sienna." "Waxed Floor."

In Mr. Keppel's handwriting on verso: "Design for the coloring of a room. A Symphony in red, white and yellow!"

2. Kenneth Myers, wall label, 2003: Of all Whistler's interiors, only the elaborate Peacock Room survives. But, most of his rooms were much simpler than The Peacock Room; we know them through sketches like this one. Whistler prepared the walls of his rooms as he would a canvas, layering several colors on top of one another to give the surface life and interest. He usually relied on distemper, a water-based paint, but avoided opaque commercial products, mixing evanescent colors of his own.

Selected Published References
1. Curry: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art
Whistler created this interior decorative scheme in horizontal bands of color akin to his abstract landscape paintings. Whistler prepared his walls as he would a canvas, in layers of color that broke through one another to give life and interest to a seemingly blank wall. On the back of another color scheme Whistler explained his method. While none of Whistler's simple interiors survive, they are known through little sketches like this one, and an occasional glimpse of a Whistlerian interior can be seen in the backgrounds of some of his portraits.
Catalogue Raisonne number
M909
MacDonald Catalogue number
Previous owner(s)
Frederick Keppel and Co. (C.L. Freer source) (1868-1940)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
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