Freer & Whistler: Points of Contact

Some 23 oil paintings represent a choice selection of the more than 1,300 paintings, prints, and drawings by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) from the gallery's collection. The works on view were chosen to exemplify both Charles Lang Freer's philosophy of collecting and Whistler's own self-conscious synthesis of western and Asian artistic traditions. Highlights include a sequence of views of the Thames from Whistler's Chelsea residence; an ensemble of Nocturnes (Whistler's term for his paintings of the moonlit urban landscape), and a pair of full-length portraits, including the magnificent Arrangement in Black: Portrait of F.R. Leyland, which depicts the patron of the renowned Peacock Room, adjacent to this exhibition.