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

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M.1557
Butterfly

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1899
Collection: Glasgow University Library
Accession Number: Whistler 292 f.56
Medium: pen and black ink
Support: cream wove paper, bound into volume of 'Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly'
Size: 7 15/16 x 6 3/8" (202 x 157 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: 'Not to be made // attach to 3 & 4' in unknown hands; printed proof, text 'AND IT IS GRAVEN UPON THE TABLETS OF THE CAUSES CELEBRES - AND THE NEW LAW IS ADDED TO THE CODE NAPOLEON! AND THE NAME THEREOF IS FAMOUS FOREVER! '

Butterfly

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