Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room

Maker(s)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Historical period(s)
1860-1861
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
H x W: 96.3 x 71.7 cm (37 15/16 x 28 1/4 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1917.234a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Oil painting

Keywords
interior, music, reading, United States
Provenance

To 1917
Colonel Frank J. Hecker (1846-1927), Detroit, to 1917 [1]

From 1917 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), given by Col. Frank J. Hecker in 1917 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Accession List, Collections Management office, as well as Original Whistler List, pg. 16, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] 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.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Colonel Frank J. Hecker (C.L. Freer source) 1846-1927
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Label

Set in the London home of Whistler's brother-in-law Seymour Haden, this painting was originally titled The Morning Call. The woman reflected in the mirror at the left is Whistler's half sister Deborah Haden. The seated girl is his niece, Annie Haden. The standing woman, Miss Isabella Boott, was connected to the Haden family by marriage. Instead of trying to create a convincing illusion of three-dimensional space, Whistler adopted a color scheme and sharply angled perspective that emphasize the flatness of the picture plane. 

Published References
  • Tamara Schneider. Japonismen in Whistlers Fruhwerk. .
  • Rebecca N. Mitchell. Victorian Lessons in Empathy and Difference. Cover and p. 111, fig. 4.
  • Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer. The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler. Studies in British Art 2 vols. New Haven, 1980. .
  • Burns A. Stubbs. James McNeill Whistler: A Biographical Outline Illustrated from the Collections of the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 1, no. 4 Washington, 1950. pl. 6.
  • , Robin Asleson, Lee Glazer, Lacey Taylor Jordan, John Siewert, Marc Simpson, Sylvia Yount. After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting. Exh. cat. p. 14, fig. 6.
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, Galina Andreeva. Whistler and Russia. Exh. cat. Moscow. p. 24.
  • Robin Spencer. James McNeill Whistler. British Artists. p. 24.
  • James McNeill Whistler in Context: Essays from the Whistler Centenary Symposium, University of Glasgow, 2003. vol. 2, 1st ed. Washington, 2008. p. 26, fig. 4.4.
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort, Pamela Robertson, Lee Glazer. James McNeill Whistler Retrospective. Exh. cat. Tokyo, 2014. p. 30, fig. 16.
  • Ideals of Beauty: Asian and American Art in the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Thames and Hudson World of Art London and Washington, 2010. p. 30.
  • Thomas Lawton, Linda Merrill. Freer: a legacy of art. Washington and New York, 1993. p. 34, fig. 21.
  • Colleen Denney. The Visual Culture of Women's Activism in London, Paris, and Beyond. Jefferson, North Carolina. p. 35, fig. 9.
  • Ayako Ono. Japonisme in Britain: Whistler, Menpes, Henry, Hornel, and Nineteenth-Century Japan. London and New York, 2003. p. 53, fig. 2.13.
  • David Park Curry. James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces. Richmond and New York, 2004. p. 89, fig. 3.30.
  • David Park Curry. James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1984. pp. 102-103, pl. 3.
  • Susan Grace Galassi, Margaret F. MacDonald, Aileen Ribeiro. Whistler, Women, and Fashion. Exh. cat. New Haven and New York, April 22 - July 13, 2003. p. 123, fig. 113.
  • The New Painting of the 1860s. New Haven and London. p. 154, fig. 137.
  • Gary Tinterow, Geneviève Lacambre. Manet/Velazquez: the French Taste for Spanish Painting: An exhibition held at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris, Sept. 16, 2002-Jan. 12, 2003 and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Mar. 4-June 8, 2003. Exh. cat. New York. p. 264, fig. 10.5.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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