Butterflies dates from 1902, when Whistler wrote from 74 Cheyne Walk to the publisher William Heinemann (1863-1920): 'The Butterflies are entirely wrong and will not do at all - The enlarged photographs ought to be sent to me to go over - and then they can be reproduced in small again.' 1 This may have been for a new edition of Whistler 1892 [more] , or another publication (however, the next edition of The Gentle Art did not appear until 1904).

This is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1707).