James McNeill Whistler
1834-1903
The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre (The Creditor), 1879
Oil on canvas
Gift of Mrs. Alma de Bretteville Spreckels through the Patrons of Art and Music
In this painting, Whistler deployed his notorious wit to caricature his former patron Frederick R. Leyland, who had commissioned Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room (1876, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution) for his London townhouse, but who battled with the artist over his unauthorized changes to the room and their cost. After suing the English art critic John Ruskin for libel in 1877, Whistler was forced to file for bankruptcy, and Leyland was his chief creditor, having himself sued Whistler for the Peacock Room's overexpenditures. The Gold Scab viciously depicts Leyland as a hideous peacock, surrounded by money bags and sitting astride Whistler's house, which had to be sold.
