This classically-inspired, delicate figure study with drapery was part of a series that Whistler executed in the late 1880s. The figure holds the drapery above her, with her head cast downward. The artist’s butterfly monogram prominently appears on the right of the sheet. The artist began using the butterfly monogram as early as 1869. The monogram is composed of his initials (JW). Whistler experimented in the 1880s with lithography—a printing technique where the artist draws the design on a stone with a greasy crayon, which is then inked and pressed to create impressions—under the advice of fellow artist Thomas Way.
