DCDC Outing with Mary

Mary and I met at the National Museum of the American Indian for lunch. Jodi was supposed to join us but we were unable to hook up because we had a cell phone glitch. (I'll not go into detail but I was responsible for the snafu.)


I always have the wild rice and water cress salad. Today I also ordered a piece of fry bread and some squash.

 Mary is sporting her new T-shirt which reads:  

Homeland Security: Fighting terrorism since 1492 in Arizona.

Pinch alert! I got a kick out of this warning when I took my tray to the tray return area.

 We then went to the Freer Gallery to see the Peacock Room. Something new was initiated last month (i.e. April 2013). The museum has decided to open the shutters in the Peacock Room from noon to 5 pm on the third Thursday of every month. One can certainly appreciate the deep, dark colors of the room more fully with the natural light from outside illuminating the walls.

"Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room" is considered Whistler's masterpiece. Whistler redecorated Frederick Leyland's dining room in London in 1876-77. 

Whistler "painted the paneled room in a rich and unified palette of brilliant blue-greens with over-glazing and metallic gold leaf." It is considered "a high example of the Anglo-Japanese style." (source: wikipedia)


In 1904 the American industrialist Charles Lang Freer bought the entire room from Leyland's heirs and transported it to his mansion in Detroit. Freer used the room to display the more than 250 ceramics he had collected in Egypt, Iran, Japan, China, and Korea.

When Freer died in 1917, the room was installed in the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery in Washington, DC.

 
                   Mary talking to the docent