The Peacock Room Comes to America: North Wall Ceramics
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The Peacock Room at Freer’s house, Detroit, 1908, now the North Wall.Photograph by George R. Swain.
Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. -
Black Raku water jar with design of gibbons and bambooKyoto workshop, imitation of the Kenzan style
Japan, Meiji era, late 19th century
Clay; black and transparent lead glazes; lacquered wooden lid
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1901.61Freer believed that this water jar, which he acquired from the Parisian dealer Siegfried Bing, had passed though several well-known Japanese collections, and “because of certain fine characteristics of glaze … may have been made by Ogata Kenzan,” a preeminent ceramist during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Even so, Freer also observed that the surface decoration of “monkeys, bamboo, etc. resembles the work of [Kenzan’s] later imitators.” The vessel was in fact created during the late nineteenth century in Kyoto, where “Kenzan ware” continues to be produced in ceramics workshops to this day.
This pot has been adopted by
Jay and Janet Hawley, in honor of their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
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Bottle with tortoiseshell glazeChina, Jiangxi province, Jizhou ware
Yuan dynasty, 13th–14th century
Stoneware with dark glaze and splashed ash glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1901.65The geographical origins of this bottle were not known to Freer, who purchased it from the Parisian dealer Siegfried Bing along with a number of other East Asian ceramics. Nevertheless, the collector described it as “very important” and suggested that it be exhibited occasionally by itself, as well with groupings of Temmoku wares. In the Peacock Room he placed it adjacent to earth-toned Japanese tea bowls, iridescent Raqqa ware, an antique Roman faience jar, and a Song dynasty tomb jar.
(What is this?) -
Bottle with decoration of clouds and phoenixesChina, Jiangxi province, Jizhou ware
Yuan dynasty, 13th century
Stoneware with dark glaze and traces of gold pigment
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1905.273When Freer loaned this bottle to an exhibition of East Asian ceramics at the Japan Society of New York in February 1914, it was thought to date to the Song dynasty. Like many of the ceramics that Freer purchased from the dealer Bunkio Matsuki, this vessel has since been identified as dating to the Yuan dynasty. This was not because Matsuki was misrepresenting his goods; almost no one understood Yuan ceramics well until the 1950s. In the Peacock Room, the bottle was exhibited with other dark, glossy ceramics, some of which were similarly decorated with touches of gold pigment.
(What is this?) -
Figure of a catJapan, probably Kyoto
Edo period or Meiji era, 19th century
Earthenware with clear lead glaze, iron pigment
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1897.33In nineteenth-century Japan, the cat was an occasional companion of courtesans and, in art, suggestive of willfulness, stealth, and eroticism. In the Peacock Room, Freer placed this figure on the mantel alongside a number of earth-toned tea bowls and beneath Whistler’s La Princesse du pays de la porcelain, which depicts the Anglo-Greek beauty Christina Spartali in Japanese robes, surrounded by a variety of decorative objects from China and Japan.
This pot has been adopted in Honor of David T. Mowry
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Tea bowlKorea, Jeollanam-do province, Undaeri kilns, buncheong ware
Joseon period, 1550–90
Stoneware with white slip dipped under clear glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1898.71Korean ceramics such as this small bowl reached Japan through international trade. Their arrival coincided with efforts by Japanese practitioners of chanoyu—the tea ceremony—to replace formal Chinese ceramics with a more intimate assemblage of tea utensils. In Korea, this small bowl might have been used for serving pickles or other condiments; in Japan, however, it was used as for tea, as indicated by the ring of brown tea-stain around the rim. In the course of use, the overall coating of white slip turned to dark ivory. This alteration in appearance was an especially prized feature of the undecorated bowls. Their shape and surface qualities had a lasting impact on Japanese preferences in ceramics.
(What is this?) -
Tea bowlJapan, Aichi prefecture
Muromachi period, late 15th–early 16th century
Stoneware with ash glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1901.49The Englishman James Lord Bowes (1834–1899), who once owned this bowl, began collecting Japanese ceramics at the 1867 Paris Exposition. This piece was an anomaly in his collection, which tended toward elaborate enamel-decorated export wares from Satsuma, Kutani, and Kyoto. Its simplicity and crackled, greenish-brown glaze were, however, very much in keeping with Freer’s taste. In 1908, Freer displayed it with an array of similar tea bowls on the mantel beneath Whistler’s painting La Princesse du pays de la porcelain.
(What is this?) -
Incense container with Chinese lion-dog on lidJapan, Edo period, 19th century
Raku-type earthenware with red slip under clear lead glaze; partial gilding
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1902.63Freer purchased this Edo period incense container from the sale of the Samuel Colman collection at the turn of the last century. Colman (1832–1920) was an early collector of “Oriental art” in America: in 1880, a number of his pieces, including Chinese porcelain and a Japanese suit of armor, were displayed at the Ortgies Gallery in New York City. The open-mouthed lion may have been derived from a similar motif on a style of Ming dynasty Chinese bronze incense burner (with the lion’s mouth serving as smoke vent). In the Peacock Room, this piece was on the far right end of the mantel; an earthenware cat (F1897.33) was placed on the far left. Between these two animal figures Freer arrayed a number of simple, undecorated tea bowls.
This pot has been adopted by
Anh and James -
Jar with two handlesSyria (Raqqa, Mesopotamia), 11th–12th century
Stone-paste painted under glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1904.51Raqqa wares like this jar only began to appear on the art market at the turn of the last century, following the excavation of ancient and medieval pottery in northern Mesopotamia, near modern-day Mosul, and in the south, near Baghdad and along the Gulf. Freer was an early enthusiast, finding chromatic harmonies among his already substantial collection of East Asian ceramics, the tonalism of his American paintings, and these iridescent turquoise- and green-glazed vessels from the Near East. He eventually amassed a substantial collection of Near Eastern ceramics. In Detroit, they were prominently featured throughout the Peacock Room, most notably massed around Whistler’s La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine and in the eye-level shelves along the west wall.
(What is this?) -
Jar with two handlesSyria (Raqqa, Mesopotamia), 11th–12th century
Stone-paste with degraded turquoise alkali-silicate glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1905.286Raqqa wares like this jar only began to appear on the art market at the turn of the last century, following the excavation of ancient and medieval pottery in northern Mesopotamia, near modern-day Mosul, and in the south, near Baghdad and along the Gulf. Freer was an early enthusiast, finding chromatic harmonies among his already substantial collection of East Asian ceramics, his tonalist American paintings, and these iridescent turquoise- and green-glazed vessels from the Near East. He eventually amassed a substantial collection of Near Eastern ceramics. In Detroit, they were prominently featured throughout the Peacock Room, most notably massed around Whistler’s La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine and in the eye-level shelves along the west wall.
(What is this?) -
Tomb jarChina, Jiangxi province
Southern Song dynasty, 13th century
Porcelain with bluish transparent (qingbai) glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1904.321This tall slender tomb jar from the Southern Song dynasty is one of eight such elaborately decorated vessels that Freer displayed as pairs in the Peacock Room in Detroit. He purchased this example from the New York gallery of Yamanaka and Company, and he was told that it and other “specimens of this kind” had been “recovered from ancient Buddhist tombs” in Korea. While that was probably true, this particular jar is now known to be Chinese in origin and to date to the thirteenth century. Originally an accoutrement of burial in China as well as Korea, it would have been paired with another jar of the same shape, both of which would have held funeral offerings of grain meant to assist the deceased in the afterlife.
(What is this?) -
JarSyria (Raqqa, Mesopotamia), 11th–13th century
Composite body with alkaline glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1904.144Described by Freer as “very beautiful,” this jar was one of a number of Near Eastern ceramics and Egyptian antiquities shipped to him on approval by the Parisian art dealer Siegfried Bing. In 1904, when he purchased this vessel, Freer had only recently turned his attention to ancient and medieval glazed wares from the Near East. As the availability of Japanese art in Western markets began to decline, Bing and other dealers looked to the arts of the Islamic world, where recent unofficial excavations had made ceramics and textiles available. Raqqa ware was especially appealing to Freer, who discerned chromatic harmonies among his already-substantial collection of East Asian ceramics, his tonalist American paintings, and the iridescent turquoise- and green-glazed vessels from the Near East. He eventually amassed a substantial collection of Near Eastern ceramics. In Detroit, they were prominently featured throughout the Peacock Room, most notably massed around Whistler’s La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine and in the eye-level shelves along the west wall.
This pot has been adopted by
Alice Tracy
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JarIraq (Mesopotamia), Baghdad, Parthian period, 1st–3rd century
Earthenware with alkaline glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1903.190Earthenware jars of this shape, typically covered with an alkaline glaze colored brown, green, or turquoise, are characteristic products from Mesopotamia during the Parthian period of the first through third century BCE. The qualities Freer most admired were the subtle colors, textured surfaces, and iridescent decay of the glaze, which he felt resonated with the complex chromatic qualities of his American paintings, particularly those by James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Dewing, and Dwight Tryon.
(What is this?) -
JarIraq (Mesopotamia), Baghdad, Parthian period, 1st–3rd century
Earthenware with alkaline glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1902.192Earthenware jars of this shape, typically covered with an alkaline glaze colored brown, green, or turquoise, are characteristic products from Mesopotamia during the Parthian period of the first through third century BCE. The qualities Freer most admired were the subtle colors, textured surfaces, and iridescent decay of the glaze, which he felt resonated with the complex chromatic qualities of his American paintings, particularly those by James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Dewing, and Dwight Tryon.
(What is this?) -
JarIraq (Mesopotamia), Baghdad, Parthian period, 1st–3rd century
Earthenware with alkaline glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
F1902.7Earthenware jars of this shape, typically covered with an alkaline glaze colored brown, green, or turquoise, are characteristic products from Mesopotamia during the Parthian period of the first through third century BCE. The qualities Freer most admired were the subtle colors, textured surfaces, and iridescent decay of the glaze, which he felt resonated with the complex chromatic qualities of his American paintings, particularly those by James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Dewing, and Dwight Tryon.
(What is this?)
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