"Whistler Peacocks" by De Gournay in the new Oriental Deco space

/ Art /

Rachel Cecil de Gournay is the heiress of the famous English brand specializing in the manufacturing of handmade wallpaper and textiles De Gournay. Last Tuesday, in the new Oriental Deco space, she told Kyiv architects and designers how to transform square meters of housing, restaurant halls, and boutiques into paradise gardens, mysterious jungles, and underwater Champs Elysées with silvery fish shimmering in the depths.

Rachel Cecile de Gournay

Among the new samples of fine wallpaper that Rachel talked about is the wonderful Whistler Peacocks series with gold peacocks on hand-dyed monochrome silk.

Whistler Peacocks design on foiled silk in the interior of the Royal Suite at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Four Seasons Resort Dubai

The author of the design, Tara Craig, was inspired by the Peacock Room, designed by James Whistler, exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

We would like to tell you more about it.

"Peacock Room" is an interior with a long and even tragic history. It was ordered by the incredibly rich British shipping magnate Frederick Leyland for his London mansion. Rather, in 1876, he simply wanted to get a new dining room, in which he intended to store an extensive collection of ancient Chinese and Japanese porcelain.

To implement the idea, Leyland invited the architect Thomas Jekyll, who designed a traditional space with a Tudor coffered ceiling and incorporated open walnut shelves for a china collection. But the main thing is that Jekyll placed a real treasure on the walls - precious leather wallpaper made in Cordoba, for which Leyland paid a fortune.

These XNUMXth-century wallpapers were brought to England by Catherine of Aragon as her dowry to Henry VIII. Leather cloths were decorated with embossed heraldic mottos of British monarchs and red Tudor roses. Jekyll suddenly fell ill, did not have time to finish decorating the space. And Leyland offered the famous artist James Whistler (you may remember him from the "Portrait of the Mother" from the Musee d'Orsay) to finish the work.

James Whistler "Arrangement in gray and black. Mother of the artist". 1871

To begin with, he painted the central canvas for this space "Princess from the Country of Porcelain". It seemed to him that the old wallpaper was dissonant with the color scheme of the picture, and Whistler received Leyland's permission to retouch it a little with yellow paint. Here Leyland made a strategic mistake (or vice versa - it was a happy accident) and left for Liverpool. For a long time

Whistler lost his temper. He completely tinted the priceless leather of Cordova in a green-blue color, and the walnut wood of the Jekyll shelves was completely covered with gold. Returning, Leyland, of course, fell into a deep shock and kicked the artist out without paying a shilling for the work.

But Whistler is not so simple. In some incredible way, he broke into the mansion and, secretly from the owner, in a flash - without sketches or preparation - painted a gold pattern on the leather wallpaper "spoiled" by him. The artist depicted two peacocks that met in a fight. It is not difficult to guess that one of them, surrounded by gold coins, is Leyland. Whistler told the tycoon with his characteristic sarcasm: “Oh, I made you famous. My work will live on when you are forgotten. Thus, as luck would have it, in the ages you will be remembered as the owner of the Peacock Room."

 

On the main panel, the artist symbolically depicted his own "struggle" with Leyland

Whistler's prophecy, indeed, quickly became a reality. The room became famous. Oscar Wilde immediately praised her: “Mr. Whistler has recently done two rooms in London which are marvels of beauty. One is the famous Peacock Room, which I regard as the finest thing in color and art decoration that the world has ever known since Correggio painted that wonderful room in Italy where the little children are dancing on the walls; everything is of the colors in peacocks' feathers, & each part so colored with regard to the whole that the room, when lit up, seems like a great peacock tail spread out”.

And then it went on. Whistler, suing Leyland due to payment until 1879, went broke and declared himself bankrupt. In addition, the artist managed to fall unrequitedly in love with Leyland's wife Frances, who, in turn, broke up with her husband.

A year later, the room "killed" its architect Thomas Jekyll - his body was found completely covered in gold leaf. An architect cannot be so impressive!

In 1904, the American collector Charles Freer bought the room and brought it to the USA. After his death in 1919, the Peacock Hall was installed in the exposition of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington. You can still see him there today.

You can see De Gournay's version of "Whistler's Peacocks" in the capital's Oriental Deco space. In the meantime, let's take a look at how Kyiv architects and designers met Rachel Cecil de Gournay.