Artwork Title: Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain

Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Artwork Title: Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of PorcelainArtwork Title: Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain
Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain (better known as The Princess from the Land of Porcelain; also known by the French title La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine) is a painting by American-born artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler. It was painted between 1863 and 1865. The painting currently hangs above the fireplace in The Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. ...Princess was painted between 1863 and 1865 by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, with Christine Spartali, the sister of Pre-Raphaelite artist Marie Spartali Stillman, serving as the model. Owen Edwards of Smithsonian describes Spartali as "an Anglo-Greek beauty whom all the artists of the day were clamoring to paint". Princess is one of several of Whistler's works painted during this period that depict a Western woman in Asian surroundings and Asian clothes. As in several other of his works, Whistler used sketches to prepare the general layout of the work. Other details were added in later. A surviving sketch depicts flowers, which were later eliminated from the work. The white Japanese screen in the background may have been one owned by Whistler. When the portrait was completed, Spartali's father refused to purchase it; Whistler's large signature led another would-be buyer to withdraw. This may have led Whistler to develop his butterfly-style signature.... ...Critics have seen influences of Japanese woodblock maker Kitagawa Utamaro in the painting, as well as 18th-century French chinoiserie stylings. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_from_the_Land_of_Porcelain] White lady plays dress-up in Whistler's Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain. Japan was all the rage at this point and served as inspiration for this Caucasian woman’s wardrobe. Christine Spartali served as the model. Whistler's large signature was rather unappealing and prevented several people, including Christine's father, from purchasing the painting. Its provenance was not very well documented but it was eventually purchased by Frederick Leyland, a weathly shipping magnate. He displayed the painting in his Asian fetish room designed by Thomas Jeckyll. Leyland decided that the old room clashed with the new painting and hired Whistler to redo the entire thing. See Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room for what happened afterwards. After Leyland's death the painting bounced around for a bit until it was purchased by Charles Lang Freer in 1903 for $18,240. A year later he also purchased The Peacock Room and donated the entire thing to the Smithsonian. The work is also known as La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine or just The Princess from the Land of Porcelain. Lauren Dare [https://www.sartle.com/artwork/the-princess-from-the-land-of-porcelain-james-abbott-mcneill-whistler] 201.5 cm × 116.1 cm
Uploaded on Jun 8, 2018 by Suzan Hamer

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