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

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M.1568
Butterfly

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1899
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number: 1933.291
Medium: pen and black ink
Support: cream wove card
Size: 4 3/4 x 6 3/16" (120 x 157 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: r.: 'distance across/ outside measure/ page 43 -'; collector's mark 'WSB' (Walter Stanton Brewster); .v.: in unknown hands '33.291/ 10'.

Butterfly

Composition

Butterfly, Art Institute of Chicago
Butterfly, Art Institute of Chicago

This was drawn for publication in Whistler 1899 (F)[more] . It is similar to the butterfly on p. 58 but the tail is different.

Technique

The pen lines are freely and fluidly drawn except for the butterfly's right antenna, which has been altered.

See further details in Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website.

Conservation History

It is on the same card as Butterfly [M.1566] and it has rough edges on three sides (not on the right). The card has darkened a little, except at right, and there are pinholes in the two left corners and to right of lower centre. There is some rubbing and finger prints, on the butterfly.

Last updated: 11th December 2020 by Margaret