Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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M.1550
r.: Butterfly for 'Noblesse abuse'; v.: tail

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1899
Collection: Glasgow University Library
Accession Number: Whistler 292 f.15-6
Medium: r.: pencil, pen, black ink and white paint; v.: pencil
Support: cream wove paper, bound into volume of 'Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly'
Size: 4-4 1/4 x 4 3/4" (102-108 x 121 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: 'Scale of Butterfly from/ top of antennae to foot/ Noblesse abuse'
print

r.: Butterfly for 'Noblesse abuse'; v.: tail

Provenance

  • 1921: bought from W. Brown, 17 Filmer Road, Fulham, London, by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930).
  • Date unknown: bought from Sherman Lurie, New York, by Hans Peter Kraus (1907-1988), New York bookseller;
  • 1978: bought from H. P. Kraus by the University of Glasgow.

The early provenance is unknown.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Last updated: 17th April 2019 by Margaret