The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biography

This gorgeously illustrated book tells the history of the Peacock Room, decorated by James McNeill Whistler for wealthy London shipowner Frederick Leyland and currently on display at the Freer Gallery of Art. The history offers fascinating insights into nineteenth-century British culture-taste, patronage, attitudes toward Asian art, origins of art nouveau, and relation to American culture.Copublished with the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. .