The Smithsonians National Museum of Asian Art has announced Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change, an exhibition that casts new light on American painter James McNeill Whistlers long-term engagement with social and economic change. The exhibition will include an array of over 100 works from the Freer Gallery of Arts unparalleled Whistler collection, several on view for the first time. The museum has the nations largest collection of works by Whistler, more than 1,000 in total, including the famed Peacock Room. Guest curated by independent scholar David Park Curry, Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change, a project of the Lunder Consortium for Whistler Studies, will be displayed in the National Museum of Asian Arts Freer Gallery of Art from Saturday, Nov. 18, through May 4, 2024. Alongside Whistlers splendid interior, the Peacock Room, this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see rare etchings, pastels and watercolors that tell the story of social and economic revolution in 19th-century European cities. Whistlers shopfront images are often small-scale depictions of working-class residents performing trades that would soon disappear from urban landscapes thanks to the rise of department stores and large-scale commercial shopping areas. This exhibition illustrates how such images of small-scale production catered to a middle-class clientele eager to embrace nostalgic views at a moment of tremendous social upheaval. Many of the changes Whistler observed, from the demise of small-scale businesses to the expulsion of poor and working-class communities from urban centers, are as present now in cities as they were in Whistlers time. Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change is part of the National Museum of Asian Arts Journeys, a series of events and exhibitions produced during the museums centennial year. Journeys projects deepen and broaden the museums impact through global and local engagement. Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change adds to this effort through a programmatic partnership with several members of the nearby Anacostia neighborhood, including the 11th Street Bridge Park Project, an elevated public space that will connect neighborhoods in Washington separated by the Anacostia River. James McNeill Whistler is an integral part of our museums history, said Chase F. Robinson, the museums director. Were pleased to showcase his artistry during our landmark centennial year and consider modern-day issues through the lens of his works. In our second century, we are transforming the National Museum of Asian Art into a space that welcomes a wide range of visitors to convene, learn and interact with Asian art and cultures and the art of the United States. Whistler had a profound influence on museum founder Charles Lang Freer, a Detroit businessman who began collecting works by living American artists in the 1880s. In 1890, he met Whistler, an influential artist who collected Chinese and Japanese works of art and adapted Asian aesthetics into his own artistic vocabulary. The two men established a long and fruitful friendship, and Freer came to share Whistlers belief that the history of art was a story of the beautiful that transcended time and place. Following the artists advice, Freer began acquiring Asian art. Eventually, he amassed a stunning array of both American and Asian works that ultimately formed the Freer Gallery of Art. In addition to works by Whistler, Freer also gathered significant holdings of U.S. artists Dwight Tryon, Thomas Dewing, Abbott Thayer as well as Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Willard Metcalf and Childe Hassam, among others. The National Museum of Asian Arts collection includes over 1,700 works by artists from the United States. Our centennial is an opportune time to showcase beloved examples from our Whistler collection alongside some little-seen gems, said Diana Greenwold, the National Museum of Asian Arts Lunder curator of American Art. Currys intellectual rigor and our collaboration with local partners means this exhibition treads new scholarly and programmatic ground. We are grateful to our partners, including Curry, Melani Douglass, Tony Ford, John Johnson, Scott Kratz and Ronald Moten, for connecting Whistlers work to issues facing Washington today. The exhibitions first iteration is at the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine (June 3 to Oct. 22), home to more than 300 etchings and lithographs that make up the Lunder Collection of James McNeill Whistler. The catalog is co-published by Colby and the National Museum of Asian Art. To learn more, visit www.asia.si.edu.