Composition

This was a design for a pennant to hang outside Whistler's exhibition, A Collection of Lithographs by James McNeill Whistler, Fine Art Society, London, 1895. Whistler's letter contained detailed instructions :

'Flag pale Yellow - cool in tone -

Square - properly let in, pale Brown - like the covers of my old Catalogues -

Butterfly - Black.

Trefoil. & small dot, the pale Yellow of the flag again -

Pretty isn't it?' 1

Conservation History

Another drawing of the flag, on the verso, had been partly scraped out, and concealed by sticking over it a sheet of laid off-white paper, which has since been partly removed. The card has bent and cracked vertically. The ink appears grey where it was blotted, in the background to the butterfly.