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

Provenance

  • 1921: bought from W. Brown, 17 Filmer Road, Fulham, London, by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930) .
  • Date unknown: bought from Sherman Lurie, New York, by Hans Peter Kraus (1907-1988), New York bookseller;
  • 1978: bought from H. P. Kraus by the University of Glasgow.

The early provenance is unknown.

Exhibitions

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

Last updated: 19th March 2021 by Margaret