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

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M.1447
Designs for a flag for a lithograph exhibition

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1895
Collection: Glasgow University Library
Accession Number: MS Whistler LB3 p. 39
Medium: pen, black ink and pencil
Support: cream card
Size: 3 7/16 x 4 1/2" (88 x 114 mm)
Signature: butterflies
Inscription: letter from Whistler to M. B. Huish; inscribed in unknown hand '27th Nov.'

Designs for a flag for a lithograph exhibition

Composition

Designs for a flag for a lithograph exhibition, Glasgow University Library
Designs for a flag for a lithograph exhibition, Glasgow University Library

This is Whistler's modified design for a flag to hang in New Bond Street on the occasion of A Collection of Lithographs by James McNeill Whistler, Fine Art Society, London, 1895. He was disappointed, he said, that he could not have the long pennant :

'Flag - well your last proposal will do - but the square with Butterfly smaller - in proportion - & I believe that no matter how you hang it the Butterfly ought to be the other way - & not upright from the ground - then it ceases to be flag & is sign.' 1

This is followed by the sketch specifying which way up the butterfly should be placed.

Technique

The flag was neatly drawn, the ink running together into a grey wash where the pen strokes come close together.

Notes:

1: [27 November 1895], GUW #02976.

Last updated: 6th March 2021 by Margaret