The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Butterfly dates from 1890.

Butterfly, Freer Gallery of Art

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1257).

Images

Subject

Description

Butterfly, Freer Gallery of Art

A dancing butterfly remotely based on Whistler's monogram 'JW', with the addition of a long barbed tail. It was designed for Whistler 1890 [more].

Technique

Composition

Butterfly, Freer Gallery of Art

Designed for Whistler 1890 [more]. The butterfly, dancing on one wing tip, is the signature to 'Another Poacher in the Chelsea Preserves', a letter to Atlas, The World, 26 December 1888, concerning Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938).

History

Provenance

• 1890: probably sent by Whistler to William Heinemann (1863-1920), London publisher.
• 1905: bought from Obach, London art dealers, by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, June 1905;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Exhibitions

By the terms of Freer's will, this work cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1257) as 'Butterfly'.

Authored by Whistler

• Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890, repr. p. 234.