Composition

In 1910 Whistler's painting on the fan was described as a drawing of a faun but the figure is a dancing woman, not half-human, half-goat. 1

Whistler made a detailed preliminary study for his spoke, Sketch for a fan [M.1422].

Technique

Whistler's figure is painted in watercolour on a circle, and signed with a butterfly, from which a long barbed tail curves down the spoke of the fan. The inner edges of all twenty spokes are painted with peacock feathers.