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

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M.1560
Butterfly and tricolour flag

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1899
Collection: Glasgow University Library
Accession Number: MS Whistler 292 ff. 45-6
Medium: pencil, pen and black ink
Support: cream wove paper, bound into volume of 'Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly'
Size: 6 3/16 x 7 5/16" (157 x 202 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: r.: ' "Argument"/ Reduced Butterfly/ about this size across- or little/ smaller' and in unknown hands 'top// 3 3/4 to 1 3/4 // 4 // Break up/ this wing a little/ through the/ centre thus'; v.: '4 inch' four times, and '64946' in unknown hand

Butterfly and tricolour flag

Composition

Butterfly and tricolour flag, Glasgow University Library
Butterfly and tricolour flag, Glasgow University Library
Butterfly and tricolour flag in Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly, p. viii, Glasgow University Library
Butterfly and tricolour flag in Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly, p. viii, Glasgow University Library

This is the last of several designs, and was the one selected for publication in Whistler 1899 (F)[more] . It was published at the end of the 'Argument', after 'AND IT IS GRAVEN UPON THE TABLETS OF THE CAUSES CLEBRES - AND THE NEW LAW IS ADDED TO THE CODE NAPOLON! AND THE NAME THEREOF IS FAMOUS FOREVER!'.

Technique

The tail was scraped out with a knife and partly redrawn. Misreading the instructions, the engraver separated the lines of overlapping shading on the cloud to right of the butterfly rather than on the wing.

Conservation History

The paper is dark cream. This is one of several drawings inset into sheets before being bound into a copy of the The Baronet and the Butterfly.

Last updated: 9th April 2019 by Margaret