Whistler’s Peacock Room was painted in the late 1800s and is one of the best examples of the Anglo-Japanese art style. As Whistler said, “…it grew as I painted. And toward the end I reached such a point of perfection… I forgot everything in my joy of it.” That said, the home owner/patron refused to pay for Whistler’s work, throwing the artist into bankruptcy.

Yet the work endures and is a must-see at the Freer Gallery, now the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art. If time allows, the tour will include other American art collected by Charles Lang Freer and displayed adjacent to the Peacock Room.