With Winged Spirits: Birds in Chinese Paintings on view in the Freer, we searched around for some more images of birds and found this photograph of a peacock in the Freer courtyard in 1923, at the time of the museum’s opening. Yes, there were live peacocks runningĀ around (okay, maybe not running), perhaps an oh-so-subtle reminder for visitors not to missĀ Whistler’s Peacock Room. At the time, three peacocks were lent to the museum from the National Zoo. They remained in the museum during the warmer months, but were returned to the zoo in the winter.
What do you think? Would you like to see peacocks in the Freer courtyard today?
Photo courtesy of the Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
