Butterfly Drawings
“In high art and pure science detail is everything.”
–Vladimir Nabokov in Strong Opinions (1973)
Nabokov often drew a butterfly in the books he gifted to others, in particular he made a practice of doing so in the many first editions he gave to his wife Véra. A few of these special volumes are now held in the Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC).
The two fanciful butterfly drawings shown here were drawn by Nabokov into Véra’s copy of the Russian-language version of his memoir Speak Memory.
These two butterflies of Nabokov's imagination are named in Véra’s honor, Morpho verae (Vera’s Morpho) and Papilio verae (Vera’s Swallowtail) and are labeled “very rare” and “very, very rare."
Dedicated to Véra in Montreux in the year 1969, this butterfly appears in the Russian-language copy of Горній Путь (The Mountain Path) which was the second collection of poems by Nabokov, published while he was living in England in 1923.
The butterfly, a fanciful, invented "Paradisia radugaleta", references Nabokov's Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969) where ‘Ardis’ is the character Ada Veen’s home, and ‘Radugalet’ is the estate shared by the character Van’s father and uncle in the novel.
This fanciful butterfly, called Arlequinus arlequinus, is drawn in Véra’s first-edition copy of "Look at the Harlequins! " (1974) which was Nabokov's final completed novel.
When Nabokov first met Véra, at a charity masquerade ball in Berlin in 1923, she was wearing a Harlequin demi-mask which she refused to lower.
The majority of these dedicated drawings have been collected in the book Véra's Butterflies: First Editions by Vladimir Nabokov Inscribed to His Wife (1999) by Sarah Funke and edited by Brian Boyd. A copy of this lovely and rare book can also be viewed in the RMC.
Science in Art
Even as fantasy sketches or doodles, the butterflies Nabokov drew often have a grounding in scientific accuracy.
Prior to the commercial success of Lolita finances were often tight for Véra and Vladimir, particularly in contrast to the wealth of the Nabokov family during Vladimir's childhood. The family account books from their time in Ithaca, now part of the RMC, show meticulous accounting of expenses, and also many little butterflies. Even these doodles have a grounding in scientific reality–one can often determine the family to which they belong, as indicated in the titles here.
