Artist Darren Waterston interprets James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room.

When shipping magnate Frederick Leyland asked James McNeill Whistler to redecorate his dining room in 1876— intended as a showcase for Leyland’s prized collection of Chinese porcelain—a dispute arose between the artist and his patron. Whistler had promised “minor alterations” but instead lavishly painted the room with plumed peacocks and feather patterns on the ceiling and shutters. Leyland refused to pay the artist his fee. The mural over the sideboard, pointedly titled “Art and Money, or, the story of the room,” depicts Whistler’s quarrel with Leyland: Whistler is the poor peacock on the left, the silver crest feather a reference to the artist’s famous white forelock; the bird on the right with coins around his feet represents Leyland. 

Waterston’s Filthy Lucre is a detailed and decadent interpretation of Whistler’s room. The nineteenth-century interior is beautifully represented in its restored original state: leather walls and gilt ceiling dazzling with coppery golds, brilliant blues, and greens. In addition, Waterston reconstructs the dining room as a gorgeous ruin, complete with reinterpretations of Whistler’s paintings, stalactite-like ceiling fixtures, and crumbling gold shelving for ceramic vessels. Featuring new photography of Waterston’s process, including installations at MASS MoCA, the V&A, and MAD, this sumptuous interior winks at the excess and inequities of both the Gilded Age and our own time.

About The Author

Susan Cross is Director of Curatorial Affairs at MASS MoCA. Lee Glazer is Senior Curator at the Academy Art Museum and previously Curator at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery.