If you’re looking for a beautiful butterfly illustration to use in your artwork, crafts, home decor, or creative projects, you’ve come to the right place.
I’ve collected a selection of vintage butterfly illustrations that are now in the public domain, making them free to download and use however you like.
These beautiful butterfly images come from antique natural history books and botanical publications. Their detailed artwork and timeless style make them perfect for anyone who loves vintage art prints, vintage artwork, or butterfly aesthetic inspiration.
I’ve selected five of my favourite butterfly prints to showcase because they work well together as a collection. They offer plenty of illustration inspiration and are ideal if you simply want beautiful butterfly pictures ready to use.
Further down the page you’ll find a much larger collection of original files. These are the untouched public domain scans, giving you complete freedom to edit, restore, crop, recolor, or resize them. .
Whether you’re creating wall art, junk journals, greetings cards, decoupage projects, or playing with digital designs, these vintage butterfly illustrations provide an excellent starting point.
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How to Download the Butterfly Illustrations
Downloading your chosen butterfly illustration is easy.
Click the links below the images you want. The full-size illustration will open in a new browser window. Right click the image and select “Save image as…” to download it to your computer.
All of these butterfly prints are in the public domain and free to download. You can use them for personal or commercial projects. If you plan to edit the files, the original scans provide the best quality for restoration and creative work.
Featured 5 Vintage Butterfly Prints
These are the five vintage butterfly illustrations I restored to create a matching set of printable wall art. Every plate comes from The Naturalist’s Library, British Butterflies by James Duncan, This edition was published in 1855.
I particularly like these because they’re not the typical isolated butterfly studies. The lightly sketched flowers and foliage give each plate a sense of place and make them feel more like works of art than purely scientific illustrations.
The backgrounds are subtle enough that they don’t distract from the butterflies, yet they add warmth and depth that many Victorian natural history prints lack.
They have the nostalgic charm of vintage artwork while still showing the butterflies in beautiful detail.
I cleaned the original scans up without ruining the vintage aesthetic and I balanced them on the page.
Then I color corrected a 2nd batch for a more contemporary vibe. Choose the version you like best.
The end result is a collection of 5 free vintage butterfly prints that look great displayed together, but each image also works as a stand-alone print.
I added the front cover mainly because I think it’s a beautiful illustration in it’s own right, but also it acts a charming center-point in a display. If you prefer a set of 4 you can always leave this aside.
Each download is supplied as a high quality JPG measuring 1808 × 3028 pixels at 300 DPI.
Each image is approximately’ 6 x 8 inches each, but I have added a generous 2 inch border so they not only look great, but also fit into an 8 x 12 inch standard commercial frame.
Download: Vintage Butterfly Illustration Collection
Vintage Butterfly Posters by Adolphe Millot
This printable butterfly poster was illustrated by the celebrated French natural history artist Adolphe Millot for the Nouveau Larousse Illustré encyclopaedia.
it might be familiar, they have become some of the most recognizable vintage butterfly prints on the web, and it’s easy to see why.
Most free prints are include all the imperfections but I edited this one and it came out well. The background is an even tone. A lot of work so I only did the one.
I didn’t trim it to a standard size so take that into account. This image is in a zip file long with the lighter version. The size is 8.73 x 11.71 inches at 300 DPI. It’s a large JPG – 2620 x 3512px
Download: Adolphe Millot Butterfly Poster
This poster brings together dozens of butterfly species in a beautifully balanced layout. They work equally well as educational charts and decorative wall art, making them a favorite with collectors, artists, and nature lovers.
Again this is a public domain image so you’re free to use it as you please or customize it to suit your own projects.
What I like most about these posters is their balance between science and art. The butterflies are arranged with symmetry and color in mind, giving the pages a beautiful vintage quality.
Vintage Butterfly Prints from the Dictionnaire Universel d’Histoire Naturelle
This is a lovely composite of vintage naturalist illustrations of butterflies and moths, arranged as four antique plates in a grid.
This set of four vintage butterfly illustrations are open domain but I can’t vouch for the original publication. I can’t recall where I found them.
This is one 8.5 x 11 inch print file. The images themselves are too small to print individually but as a set in one frame they will will print well.
Download: Vintage Sheet of Butterfly Prints
This is a single download. Simply click the link and a new window will open. Right click the image and use ‘Save Image as’ in the menu.
This image is only lightly edited.
This kind often sold as printable wall art, journal ephemera, or scrapbooking material. If you’re using this for a project (like decor, printables, or a nature journal), the antique scientific-plate aesthetic would pair well with botanical prints or old map designs for a cohesive vintage look.
Vintage Butterfly Illustration Downloads: Final Thoughts
I’ll admit it, I originally set out to share a much larger collection of vintage butterfly illustrations with you today. But as I started sorting, cropping, and touching up each plate, the hours slipped away faster than I expected.
One edit led to another, and before I knew it, the afternoon was gone.
Anyhow, these seven images featured here are some of the strongest vintage butterfly illustrations I had, rich in detail and full of that timeworn, scientific-plate charm that makes vintage butterfly prints so enduringly popular.
And This is a reminder for anyone browsing: these files are yours to use freely, including commercially, so if you spot a gap in the market, stationery, prints, packaging, whatever it may be. Feel free to run with it.
For the rest of us just looking to enjoy them as they are, they’ll make beautifully understated framed wall art, or add a refined, old-world touch to a handmade greeting card. Either way, I hope they bring a little vintage magic into your next project
I have a few more like this:
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- 8 Free Printable Wildlife Paintings
- Where to Find Wildlife Subjects to Draw, Paint, and Photograph
- Traveling Artist: How to Sell Your Art and Travel the World
- How to Start Drawing Wildlife and Become a Wildlife Artist
- 7 Bird Art Bestsellers: Best Wall Art Selling Guide
- 9 Farm Animal Art Bestsellers: Home Decor That Sells!
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Hi, I’m Kevin Hayler
I’ve been selling my wildlife art and traveling the world for over 20 years, and if that sounds too good to be true, I’ve done it all without social media, art school, or galleries!
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