DOI issue:
No. 91 (Septemner, 1904)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26962#0313
Studio-Talk
INLAID CABINET: INTERIOR
DESIGNED BY M. H. BAILLIE SCOTT
EXECUTED BY J. P. WHITE
ground which is of the tint of the paper of a
Japanese print. The accompanying illustrations of
this cabinet and rug fail somewhat to convey a
true idea of a scheme which is mainly a thought
in colour.
No scheme of decoration, in a public or a private
place—in our own time, at least—has ever aroused
the interest of the intelligent and the curiosity of
the unintelligent in such matters to such an extent
as the famous Peacock Room. The fame of its
unique scheme of design spread beyond the con-
fines of those who, by taste or by profession, were
interested in interior decoration—beyond those
interested in whatever came from the hand of
Whistler—to those who, without the circle called
the art world, had heard only, perhaps, of the
extraordinary personality of the designer. But
legends got about as to this room, and numbers of
people have frequented Messrs. Obach’s Galleries
during the last month to see it, as it is re-erected
there. Many people to whom any fresh step in
the arrangement and decoration of rooms is an
event of importance in itself were glad at last to
have an opportunity of studying it. Hitherto this
had been impossible but to the few, so that the
displacement of the scheme from its original home
has not been an unmixed evil. Owing to the sale,
at the death of Mr. Leyland, of the painting called
La Princesse du Pays de Porcelaine, by Whistler,
which formed part of the original scheme, and
around which grew up the elaborate peacocks,
as afterthought succeeded afterthought and the
design took shape in its entirety, the room, as it
is seen at present, is minus one of the chief notes
of its composition; but so perfectly carried out
was the idea that, though intended to be sub-
ordinate to the picture, some who saw the room
at Mr. Leyland’s have hazarded the opinion that
by the removal of the painting it is left more
completely decorative in itself. It seems a pity
that the room is to be set up out of England.
It is a witness to a very determined effort
on the part of one man to escape from all
the traditions that have controlled decoration
in this country. Its originality may be impaired
by its tremendous debt to the Japanese, but
there is in it displayed an amount of initia-
tive that has not been without its effect on
contemporary work, chiefly in showing the
absolute freedom with which a man may work
who is so much an artist that unconsciously
his production is controlled not by rules, but
by the sense of form and instinct for decora-
tion within him. It is a pity that a whole room,
conceived in the fancy of an artist whose slightest
241
INLAID CABINET: INTERIOR
DESIGNED BY M. H. BAILLIE SCOTT
EXECUTED BY J. P. WHITE
ground which is of the tint of the paper of a
Japanese print. The accompanying illustrations of
this cabinet and rug fail somewhat to convey a
true idea of a scheme which is mainly a thought
in colour.
No scheme of decoration, in a public or a private
place—in our own time, at least—has ever aroused
the interest of the intelligent and the curiosity of
the unintelligent in such matters to such an extent
as the famous Peacock Room. The fame of its
unique scheme of design spread beyond the con-
fines of those who, by taste or by profession, were
interested in interior decoration—beyond those
interested in whatever came from the hand of
Whistler—to those who, without the circle called
the art world, had heard only, perhaps, of the
extraordinary personality of the designer. But
legends got about as to this room, and numbers of
people have frequented Messrs. Obach’s Galleries
during the last month to see it, as it is re-erected
there. Many people to whom any fresh step in
the arrangement and decoration of rooms is an
event of importance in itself were glad at last to
have an opportunity of studying it. Hitherto this
had been impossible but to the few, so that the
displacement of the scheme from its original home
has not been an unmixed evil. Owing to the sale,
at the death of Mr. Leyland, of the painting called
La Princesse du Pays de Porcelaine, by Whistler,
which formed part of the original scheme, and
around which grew up the elaborate peacocks,
as afterthought succeeded afterthought and the
design took shape in its entirety, the room, as it
is seen at present, is minus one of the chief notes
of its composition; but so perfectly carried out
was the idea that, though intended to be sub-
ordinate to the picture, some who saw the room
at Mr. Leyland’s have hazarded the opinion that
by the removal of the painting it is left more
completely decorative in itself. It seems a pity
that the room is to be set up out of England.
It is a witness to a very determined effort
on the part of one man to escape from all
the traditions that have controlled decoration
in this country. Its originality may be impaired
by its tremendous debt to the Japanese, but
there is in it displayed an amount of initia-
tive that has not been without its effect on
contemporary work, chiefly in showing the
absolute freedom with which a man may work
who is so much an artist that unconsciously
his production is controlled not by rules, but
by the sense of form and instinct for decora-
tion within him. It is a pity that a whole room,
conceived in the fancy of an artist whose slightest
241