Composition

This was drawn for publication in James McNeill Whistler, Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly. A Valentine with a Verdict, Paris: Louis-Henry May, 1899. It was inexpertly reproduced.

Technique

It was drawn in pencil, pen and black ink. The tail was not drawn in a continuous line, and the bottom of the tail was finally drawn over several rubbed out lines, while the dot was originally lower. The drawing on the verso, which showed the butterfly with a chequered body, was corrected in white paint (which has gone brown and black), and crossed out.

See further details in Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website.

Conservation History

Although cut off at the top, the drawing on the verso is the same way up as that on the recto. A small butterfly proof was stuck on the card-weight paper on the recto to show the proposed scale. There are pinholes at the top corners and to left of centre, and lower left and bottom right.