Frederick R. Leland was one of the nineteenth century's success stories; rising from office boy to head own shipping company. He spent much of his fortune on art collections. He wanted to be known as a modern Medici of Liverpool and intended to redo his town home in London to resemble the residence of a Venetian merchant prince.

James McNeill Whistler, the American born painter, was gaining attention in London for his paintings with an oriental theme when Leland purchased the painting, Princess from the Land of Porcelain, to hang in his dining room among his collection of blue and white oriental porcelain. Leland also bought some very old Spanish leather. It was said to have once belonged to Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. He obtained it to use as wall covering in the dining room. He hired an architect to oversee the project. Since Whistler's painting was to be a focal point of the room, he was eased into the redecoration project as an advisor.

Whistler immersed himself into the project. He decided to paint over the antique leather, trim the carpet, and gild the shelves and moulding with gold leaf. He took advantage of his access to the prestigious address to invite friends to visit for salon social gatherings while he was working. One journalist described the artist at work touching up the ceiling as he lay on his back with a brush attached to a fishing pole. He was said to dance with the ladies among the paints.

By the summer of 1876, the result was Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room. (Click on the room photograph to see a closer view of the painting) Whistler had painted overlapping peacock feathers on the walls and continued them on the vaulted ceiling. The moldings were covered with gold, and peacocks were painted on the window shutters and on a large panel at the end of the room. Whistler considered the room itself to be a work of art. In the flickering light of gas lamps, the gold and blue glittered on dinner guests and give visitors the impression of being inside an Oriental lacquered box.

When Whistler invited the press to see the results, he described the design of the room in a brochure: "... the Peacock is taken as a means of carrying out this arrangement. A pattern, invented from the Eye of the Peacock (feathers) is seen in the ceiling spreading from the lamps. Between them is a pattern devised from the breast feathers. These two patterns are repeated throughout the room. Beginning from the blue floor, on the dado is the breastwork, blue on gold, while above, on the blue wall the pattern is reversed, gold on blue. The arrangement is completed by the blue peacocks on the gold shutters, and the gold peacocks on the blue wall."

Mr. Leland was a practical man and the expense was far more than he had expected for a modest color change in his dining room that should have taken a few days at most. "I do not think you should have involved me in such an large expenditure without previously telling me of it," wrote Leland to Whistler. "The peacocks you have put on the back of the shutters may be worth (as pictures) the 1200 pounds that you charge for them, but that position is clearly a most inappropriate one for such a piece of decoration; and you were not justified in placing them there without any order from me.... It seems to me the only way of arriving at a fair charge is to take the time occupied at your average rate of earnings as an artist."

Whistler was angry; not only because Leland refused to pay the full amount but that he paid Whistler in British pounds as a tradesman would be paid, rather than in sovereigns, as a fine artist was traditionally paid. Leland, the businessman, had calculated the sum on the basis of the time involved. This was also an insult to an artist, who did not consider his work to be that of a basic craftsman.

The artist had the last laugh, however. As he was cleaning up to leave, Whistler added a touch to the golden peacocks. He added silver shillings at the feet of the angry peacock to represent the money that Leland had withheld and he added a silver feather to the head of the proud peacock to represent Whistler's characteristic white shock of hair. The two birds thus took on an added meaning and became a constant reminder of the insult. Although Whistler never again saw the room in Leland's lifetime, Leland was reminded of the artist whenever he went to dinner.

The entire Peacock room, recently cleaned and once again glittering, is on exhibit in the Freer Gallery in Washington. The Freer Gallery is part of the Smithsonian Institution.