Technique

It was drawn on thin transparent transfer paper prepared by Henri Belfond (fl. 1891-1894) of the Imprimerie Belfond & Cie, with gum coating on the side intended for a drawing in lithographic crayon. By mistake, Whistler drew on the un-gummed side, and as a result the crayon drawing could not be transferred to stone and printed. Instead, as Spink et al point out, he carefully drew over the composition in pen and ink, probably on the gummed side, although it is not absolutely certain (because of the extreme thinness of the paper) that the crayon drawing was on one side and the pen on the other. 1 The butterfly signature being the correct way round suggests that in this case both the crayon and the pen are on the same side; this is, to say the least, confusing.

The odd, jerky pen lines, and the blobs of ink at the end of each line, are probably due to the difficulty of drawing on this paper. Not absolutely all of the crayon lines were drawn over in pen. At her neck and to right of her ankle there is shading in crayon that has not been redrawn in pen.