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

 

M.1240
Butterfly

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1890
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number: 33.284
Medium: graphite pencil
Support: off-white card
Size: 3 3/16 x 6 1/8" (81 x 156 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: '33.284' and 'OCT' in unknown hands; 'WSB' (collector's mark of Walter Stanton Brewster)

Butterfly

Provenance

  • 1890: probably sent by Whistler to William Heinemann (1863-1920) , London publisher.
  • 1920: sold by Albert Louis Roullier (1858-1920) , Chicago art dealer, to Walter Stanton Brewster (1872-1954) , Chicago;
  • 1933: given to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

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

Last updated: 4th March 2021 by Margaret