Fan

Object Details

• Description

  A large paper folding fan, the top edge scalloped, painted with a 'night and day' design; the left hand in ink and colours with a hilly landscape, the right hand side with a gradually overlapping uniform blue night sky. The reverse with scattered butterflies in silver on a pink ground. The guards lacquered red. The fan leaf with a 'butterfly' signature of James McNeill Whistler and an autograph musical quotation signed P. de Sarasate.

• Inscriptions

  This fan bears the signatures of the artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and the virtuoso violist and composer Pablo de Sarasate y Navascues (1844-1908). Whistler added his butterfly monogram and Sarasate inscribed a passage of music, presumably from one of his own compositions. These authentic inscriptions make the fan a unique document of the friendship between Sarasate and Whistler and their mutual interest in Japanese objects.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Fans in Fashion: The Collection of Colin Lawton Johnson (1990-1991)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Harold P. Stern Memorial Fund

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1880s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1870s, 1660s

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Trees, Mountains, Landscapes, Art, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Lacquer, Meiji era (1868 - 1912)

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings