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The Butterfly

Datenot dated

Illustration CitationDate and place of illustration not identified

MediumGraphite on paper

Dimensionssheet: 8 1/2 × 6 in. (21.6 × 15.2 cm)

Credit LineF. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 2023

Object number2023-9

On View

Not on view

Label TextThis drawing resembles the illustrations that De Kay provided for books of poetry and for Scribner's Magazine in the late 19th century. Images like this might frame the printing of a poem or the introduction of an article.

Although it did not appear in print with it, this drawing echoes a stanza of "A Song of Early Autumn," a poem by the artist's husband, Richard Watson Gilder:

When butterflies flutter from clover to thicket,
Or wave their wings on the drooping leaf;
When the breeze comes shrill with the call of the cricket,
Grasshopper’s rasp, and rustle of sheaf.