Exception or extension? : reorienting the Peacock Room among James McNeill Whistler's interior designs

"Although famous for his paintings and etchings today, James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was also an important interior designer in the nineteenth-century British Aesthetic movement. Whistler‘s most famous and only extant interior design is Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room (1876-77). It is also his most puzzling interior. Long considered an exception to the rule of Whistler‘s other interiors, the Peacock Room has often been overlooked in the few studies of the artist‘s interior designs"

John La Farge as collector of Japanese art : motivations and reflections

Throughout his lifetime, American artist John La Farge (1835-1910) amassed an enormous collection of art and books. La Farge’s study of art and culture encompassed several genres and aesthetic elements. La Farge has been credited as the first American artist — even prior to James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)— to integrate visual elements and cultural awareness of the Far East within his own Western-trained art. Although many scholars have studied La Farge’s art and life from various perspectives, including his interest in Asian art, the object of the present study is solely focused on La Farge’s collecting of Japanese art.