Peacock Room: Courtesy of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution

Wayne State University's Charles Lang Freer House and the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute present "Painting with Pottery in the Peacock Room," a lecture by Louise Allison Cort, curator for ceramics at the Smithsonian Institution's Freer and Sackler galleries, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 1, 2012, at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), 5200 Woodward Ave.

The event is co-sponsored by the DIA's Asian and Islamic Art Forum and the Japan America Society of Greater Detroit and Windsor.

Experience Whistler's famous Peacock Room as it was displayed by art collector Charles Lang Freer in his Ferry Street home. Cort will describe the Smithsonian's new exhibit of the Peacock Room as it was in Detroit from 1908-1919, filled with Freer's extraordinary collection of Asian and Islamic ceramics. The lecture will provide new insights into Freer's approach to art collecting and his eye for color harmonies.

Following the lecture, a benefit reception and tours will take place at Freer House, 71 E. Ferry, one block north of the DIA. Visitors will tour the space that once held the Peacock Room and see an exhibit of historic photos.

The lecture is free with DIA admission and will be held in the museum's Marvin and Betty Danto Lecture Hall. Tickets for the reception and tours are $10; or $5 for students and Freer House members. RSVP is suggested; contact Rose Foster at 313-664-2509.

For more information: http://mpsi.wayne.edu/freer-events.php.

About the Peacock Room and Freer House
Decorated in 1875 by the American artist James McNeill Whistler, the Peacock Room was a London dining room built to display its original owner's collection of blue and white Chinese porcelain. The room was purchased by Charles Lang Freer in 1904 and installed as an exhibition space in his Detroit home. Today, the room is part of the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and considered to be one of the top 20 icons of American art. Built in 1892, the historic Charles Lang Freer House is owned by Wayne State University and serves as the headquarters of the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute.

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