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

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M.1554
Butterfly beside the sea

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1899
Collection: Glasgow University Library
Accession Number: Whistler 292 f.33
Medium: pencil
Support: cream wove paper, bound into volume of 'Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly'
Size: 7 15/16 x 6 1/4" (202 x 160 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: 'The drawing to be reduced so that/ the horizontal lines will be about the length/ of the ones in this/ The Butterfly would/ then be less than half size -', by Whistler, and in unknown hand '(2)'; printed: 'To/ Those Confrères across the Channel who,/ with a pluck and delicacy all their own,/ "sat tight" during the struggle, these/ decrees of the Judges are affectionately/ dedicated', and annotated by Whistler, 'refraining from intrusive demonstration.'

Butterfly beside the sea

Catalogues Raisonnés

  • MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1554) as 'Butterfly beside the sea'.

Authored by Whistler

  • Whistler, James McNeill, Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly. A Valentine with a Verdict, Paris: Louis-Henry May, 1899, p. v.

Last updated: 19th March 2021 by Margaret