File:Art and criticism - monographs and studies (1892) (14782334764).jpg

Identifier: criticismmo00chil (find matches)
Title: Art and criticism : monographs and studies
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: Child, Theodore
Subjects: Art criticism
Publisher: Harper
Contributing Library: Whitney Museum of American Art, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Metropolitan New York Library Council - METRO

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
and a new and absolutely unique decorativescheme of blue and gold, in which the chief motif was peacocksand their feathers, appeared in its place. Walls, wood-work,and ceiling are entirely covered with these compositions in theJapanese taste. The framework is lacquered and clouded, ortreated like aventurine, and the panels are filled in with im-brications of peacocks feathers of exquisite invention. Overthe buffet, at the end of the room opposite the fireplace, isan oblong panel sixteen feet long, where Mr. Whistler hasdepicted two peacocks in aggressive attitudes, designed ingold on a blue ground. One peacock, of extreme and un-ruffled elegance, is supposed by some subtle interlinear read-ers to represent the artist, and the other peacock, with dis-ordered plumage and irate mien, standing on a pile of shekels,is identified with the artists patron. The background isdotted with flying feathers and masses of gold, and the wholecomposition has reference, we are told, to a difference that
Text Appearing After Image:
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.From a painting by G. F. Watts. A PRE-RAPHAELITE MANSION. 311 arose between Mr. Whistler and Mr. Leyland with respect to the price of the work. This cryptic panel was the paintersvengeance, but its hidden meaning is so discreetly concealedthat it would remain forever lost in the spirited charm of thewhole, had not anecdotic memories treasured up the souvenirof the artists wrath and of its ingenious manifestation. The tall panels formed by the closed shutters of the case-ment windows are exceedingly fine in design. The panels to the right and left represent peacocks with their tails spreadfanwise, advancing in perspective towards the spectator, onebehind the other, the peacocks in gold and the ground in blue.On the middle panel are perched two peacocks with pendenttails sweeping down to the ground, and presenting an arrange-ment of lines and masses of blue and gold of singular splendor.The remaining wall space is occupied by the smaller panellingalready described,

Note About Images