ess: 
enquirer 
Philadelphia, 
Pa. 
7-fc\'. 
a 
The extraordinary rise in apprecia¬ 
tion of the Chinese and Japanese 
Schools of Art gives special impor¬ 
tance and point of the Freer Collec¬ 
tion, still for the most part housed in 
the collector’s house in Detroit, but le- 
igally the property of the Nation, hav¬ 
ing been presented by deed of gift, 
dated,May 5, 1906. The terms of the 
gift provide that the collections arc to 
be retained by Mr. Freer during his 
life, subject'to additions and improve- 
Witli this munificent gift is promised 
a bequest of $500,000 to be paid to the 
regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 
upon the death of the donor, and to be 
[used for the erection of a fireproof 
building, connected with the National 
Museum, or reasonably near it. accord¬ 
ing to plans and specifications agreed 
upon. 
2250 Objects in Collection 
The original collection conveyed by 
deed of gift, comprised about 2250 ob¬ 
jects, but the additions since made have 
increased the number to more than 
4000. Roughly speaking, the collec¬ 
tion contains the following specimens: 
paintings in oil, water color and pastel 
by living American painters, eighty- 
five paintings in oil, water color, pastel 
and drawings and sketches by Whistler, 
about 250; the decoration of the Pea¬ 
cock Room complete, and etchings, dry- 
points and, lithographs by Whistler, 
/about 850. 
The collection of Egyptian glass is 
the largest known, and of Chinese and 
Japanese paintings, scrolls, screens, 
panels, kakemonos, and albums, there 
are moi’e than 900; while of pottery, 
including Chinese, Corean, Japanese, 
Mr. Freer yyas the purchaser of the 
famous Peacock Room, called a "Har¬ 
mony in Blue and Gold,” that marvel¬ 
ous creation of 'Whistler,'made for the 
London residence of the late F. R. Ley - 
land. While the British Government 
was discussing- the propriety of acquir¬ 
ing this superb trophy^ for the na¬ 
tion, the American collector quietly 
paid the demanded price and became 
its possessor. 
Whistler was commissioned to paint 
Leyland, bis wife and four children. 
The oil painting of the ship-owner was 
the only one completed. W histler paint¬ 
ed him standing, in evening dress, and 
I this canvas is included iu the Freer 
collection. The portrait is not so fa¬ 
miliar as others of the full lengths, and 
<t was not shown until the London me- 
10 rial exhibition of Whistler’s works 
-rought it to light. 
It is one of his many arrangements 
in black, and it marks the painter s 
breaking aAvay-from the purely deco¬ 
rative treatment, as instanced m the 
portrait of the artist’s mother, the 
Carlyle and Miss ♦Alexander, to broad- 
er atmospheric effects, which absorb¬ 
ed him in later portraits. 
Laboring Under Difficulties 
The canvas was completed under dif- 
/ fie.ulties. which are thus described in 
Pennell's Life of Whistler: 
"Leyland, told Val Prineep that 
Whiifeler nearly cried over the draw¬ 
ing of the. legs. Mr. Greaves says that 
“lie painted them out again and again, 
and finally had a model to pose lor it 
._ - _ ■ ■ _ 
if. 
Persian, Mesopotamia and Egyptian 
there are more than 1500 specimens. 
In number and quality of early works 
of the Oriental masters, the collection 
stands unrivaled in America and Eu¬ 
rope, andfseveral of the finest works 
included were obtained from their Im¬ 
perial owners direct. Each object was 
gathered by Mr. Freer personally, and 
so great is his knowledge of the sub¬ 
ject that Fenollosa considered him the 
•“greatest living expert in artistic paint¬ 
ing and the most inwardly apprecia¬ 
tive.” __ 
Freer and Whistler 
It was in 1888 that Mr. Freer first] 
met. Whistler, 'whose work sounds tin 
keynote of the collection, becoming ai 
intimate friend and liberal patron o; 
the artist. His collection of Wlnutldr’f'j 
work alone constitutes a rare treasure 
for the National Gallery, containing, 
as it does, many masterpieces and a 
i comprehensive survey of the various 
phases of his art. 
nude. It -was finished in the winter 
m 1S73. He also painted a study for 
% shown in the London Memorial Ex¬ 
hibition, In the portrait of Leyland 
he began to suppress the background, 
to put the figures into the atmosphere 
m which they stood, without any acces¬ 
sories, 
“The problem was now the atrnos- 
pheriC- envelope, to make the figures 
stand in this atmosphere, as far with¬ 
in tlieir Frames as he stood from them 
when he painted them, and at this 
problem he worked as long as he liv- 
Another interesting full-length in¬ 
cluded Hi the collection is "Jeune 
emiu.c dite 1 Amerieaine: Arrange¬ 
ment in Black and Whitt.” This is a 
portrait ° f Maud Franklin. Whistler’s 
model for many- years. It is of 
tiie same period, through much 
less famous than the portrait of Lady 
Archibald Campbell, ““The Yellow 
Buskiu.” Shown at the exhibition of 
British Artists in the eighties, it pass¬ 
ed into a private collection in Ger- 
many, where it remained in obscurity 
death & feW years after Whistler’s 
While these two portraits are less 
notable than the several disputed mas¬ 
terpieces of the painter, both have the 
unmistakable quality which is Whist- 
er s. * 
