Arrangement In Black

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Arrangement In Black: Portrait Of F.R. Leyland
1874
Freer Gallery Of Art, Washington

Oil On Canvas
77 1/8 Inches By 36 3/4 Inches

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Five years after completion of “Arrangement In Black”, Whistler was to portray shipping magnate Frederick Leyland a second time—but without the subject’s authorization for the latter painting—in “The Gold Scab”.

In the intervening years, of course, there had been that little business about The Peacock Room—as well as the fact that Leyland, Whistler’s largest creditor, had been appointed to preside over Whistler’s 1879 bankruptcy proceedings.