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

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M.1548
Butterfly

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1899
Collection: Glasgow University Library
Accession Number: Whistler 292 f.7
Medium: pencil, pen, black ink and white paint
Support: cream wove paper, rebound into volume; boards, brown leather with gilt lettering 'EDEN VERSUS WHISTLER/ THE BARONET & THE BUTTERFLY/ A VALENTINE WITH A VERDICT/ PARIS' and butterfly
Size: 7 9/16 x 5 3/4" (192 x 146 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: r.: 'For title page/ Butterfly reduced to same size/ as present temporary one', and in an unknown hand 'Top/ (1)/ 5-to 3/4 of inch.'; v: '18 ½ x 14/ 64899' in unknown hands

Butterfly

Composition

Butterfly, Glasgow University Library
Butterfly, Glasgow University Library
Title-page for ‘Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly’, Glasgow University Library
Title-page for ‘Eden versus Whistler: The Baronet and the Butterfly’, Glasgow University Library

In reducing the actual butterfly from c. 155 mm to 22 mm high, for publication in Whistler 1899 (F)[more] , some details were lost in the tail and antennae.

Technique

It was drawn in pencil, pen and black ink, with corrections in white paint.

Conservation History

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

Last updated: 17th April 2019 by Margaret