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

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M.1569
r.: Butterfly; v.: Fragment of butterfly

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1899
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number: 1933.290
Medium: r.: graphite pencil, pen and black ink; v.: graphite pencil, pen and brush
Support: cream wove card
Size: 4 3/4 x 6 1/4" (120 x 158 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: 'top. / page 58./ "Shocking bad Raconteur" ' and 'size from tip of antennae / to foot -', and in an unknown hand '5 16s. / 16'; collector's mark 'WSB' (Walter Stanton Brewster)

r.: Butterfly; v.: Fragment of butterfly

Composition

r.: Butterfly; v.: Fragment of butterfly, Art Institute of Chicago
r.: Butterfly; v.: Fragment of butterfly, Art Institute of Chicago

This was drawn for publication in the book by James McNeill Whistler, Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly. A Valentine with a Verdict, Paris: Louis-Henry May, 1899. The butterfly was not in fact used in the book, Butterfly [M.1548] being substituted.

Technique

There is a faint pencil butterfly to right, and a line scraped or rubbed out to left of the tail.

The sketch on the verso is rough, and has been changed; it is probably incomplete, and possibly not by Whistler. The butterfly's tail was finished in pencil, and so was a feeler, with a very tentative line. This drawing is the opposite way up from that on the recto.

Conservation History

The thin card has pinholes in the corners on the left, one a bit in from the top right, and two at bottom right; and has rough edges on three sides, but not on the right.

Last updated: 11th December 2020 by Margaret