“Peacocks?!” or How James Abbot McNeal Whistler (1834–1903) Redefined Chinoiserie and Patron–Artist Relationship

One of the illustrative examples of the intervention of Chinese art in the formulation of the most important styles of the late 19th – early 20th centuries and its creative tandem with Japanese culture, which was then extremely popular in Europe, is James Whistler’s Peacock Room, the famous masterpiece of aestheticism and “Anglo-Japanese style”. The time has come to reflect on this work not only using several familiar stylistic labels, but also by trying to understand why the famous art style is classified as an Anglo-Japanese style if the key work in the room bears the unambiguous title “Princess from the Land of Porcelain.” The close connections between Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Far Eastern artistic influences are well known, but it makes sense to place Whistler’s masterpiece “Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room” within the context of existing since 16th century Orientalistic style and a long-standing (since the 18th century) fascination with China. The main style of the unique work is undoubtedly Chinese (blue and white qinghua-qi vases (青花瓷), the imaginary portrait of a princess from the Land of Porcelain, the general design of the literati’s office (wenfang; 文房) and the golden peacocks themselves, which gave the room its name), but Whistler was also inspired by Japanese landscape engravings long before Monet and Van Gogh, even imitating the works of Hokusai and Hiroshige. Having analyzed the influences and history of the room, the author concludes that it should not be inertly attributed to the Anglo-Chinese style, but the concept of “Neo-Chinoiserie” should be introduced.