The Busby |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46653) | |
| Number: | 368 | |
| Date: | 1887 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 217 x 128 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 2 | |
| Known impressions: | 1 | |
| Catalogues: | K.437; M.437 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (1) | ||
The Busby probably dates from between 1887 and 1889.
Whistler's technique, with areas of broad parallel shading, and the butterfly, with its shaded areas, could fit within these dates.
The copper plate is close in size to four prints: York Street, Westminster [382], which dates from 1887, The Fur Cloak - Mrs Herbert [367] and Nora Quinn [364], both of 1888, and Balustrade, Luxembourg Gardens [465], which is of a later date, in the early 1890s. It is interesting that, of these, The Fur Cloak - Mrs Herbert [367] also shows a fur-based costume.
The costume - the fur bonnet in particular - can be dated to the late 1880s. It is undoubtedly a winter outfit, which suggests that the most likely dates are the winter of 1887-1888 or that of 1888-1889. However, it could obviously also be used in the 1890s. Lochnan dates the drypoint 1892-1893. 1
1: Lochnan 1984, p. 285, no. 442.