The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Three butterflies dates from 1890.

Three butterflies, Art Institute Of Chicago

They are catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1259). This entry has been revised.

Images

Subject

Description

Three butterflies, Art Institute of Chicago

Three butterflies remotely based on Whistler's monogram 'JW', with the addition of barbed tails. They were designed for Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890.

Technique

Composition

Three butterflies, Art Institute of Chicago

Designed for Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890. Two of these butterflies were not used. The butterfly at lower left is like the one on p. 248 except that the left feeler turns out instead of in; this is the signature to 'Testimony', a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette, 7 April 1888, on the publication of the 'Ten o'clock' lecture.

History

Provenance

• 1890: probably sent by Whistler to William Heinemann (1863-1920), London publisher.
• 1903: acquired by Robert Charles Goff (1837-1922).
• 1920 or 1924: sold by Albert Louis Roullier (1858-1920), Chicago art dealer, to Walter Stanton Brewster (1872-1954), Chicago, April 1920 or November 1924;
• 1933: given to the Art Institute of Chicago.

For further details seeMacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1259).

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1259) as 'Three butterflies'.

Authored by Whistler

• Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890, repr. p. 248.

Websites

• Art Institute of Chicago website at https://www.artic.edu.
• 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 (cat. no. 30).