Butterflies

A chronology of Whistler's butterfly signatures

1873	1883	1885
1889	1894	1898

Whistler's monogram 'J.W.' was developed into a 'butterfly' signature in c.1869 and gradually evolved over the next thirty years, acquiring antennae, veins and a tail. In the more barbed of his letters, he would sign himself with a stinging tail, like that of a scorpion.