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AUBREY BEARDSLEY

: aubrey : :
beardsleyBY ROBERT ROSS
WITH SIXTEEN FULL-PAGE
ILLUSTRATIONS AND A
REVISED ICONOGRAPHY
BY AYMER VALLANCE JL

TURNULLI. AND Sl'bAKb, FRINTKKS, EOINOURCH.

TO
Sir COLERIDGE ARTHUR FITZROY KENNARD,
Bart.

Illustrations

Mrs Patrick Campbell .... Frontispiece
Nov) in the Berlin National Gallery facing page
Siegfried . . . . . • • • 12
Reproduced from the original in the possession of Mrs Bealby Wright
The Woman in the Moon . . . . 14
From ' * Salome "
The Toilette of Salome  18
From " Salome ''
The Dancer's Reward ..... 20
From "Salome"
Tailpiece  22
From " Salome''
Design for a Frontispiece .... 26
From " Flays " by John Davidson
The Wagnerites  28
Atalanta  32
The Mysterious Rose Garden .... 36
7

Aubrey Beardsley

facing page
Illustration for "A Nocturne of Chopin" . 38
Chopin, Ballade III. Op. 47 ... 42
Reproduced by permission of Charles Holme, Esqre.

The Baron's Prayer
From " The Rape of the Lock "

44

The Battle of Beaux and Belles ... 48
From " The Rape ofthe Loci "
A Design from " Lysistrata " . . . . 50
D'Albert in Search of Ideals .... 54
From " Mademoiselle de Maupin. '' Reproduced from the original
it* the possession of Mrs Bealby Wright

AUBREY BEARDSLEY

AUBREY BEARDSLEY
A UBREY BEARDSLEY was born on
/ ^k August i ist, 1872, at Brighton.
/ ^k He was a quiet, reserved child,
A. J^. caring little for lessons, though
from an early age he shewed an aptitude for
drawing. He began his education at a Kinder
garten. He was seven years old when the
first symptoms of delicacy appeared, and he
was sent to a preparatory school at Hurst-
pierpoint, where he was remarkable for his
courage and extreme reserve. Threatened
with tuberculosis, he was moved for his health
to Epsom in 1881. In March 1883 his family
settled in London, and Beardsley made his
first public appearance as an infant musical
phenomenon, playing at concerts in company
with his sister. He had a great knowledge
of music, and always spoke dogmatically on a
subject, the only one he used to say, of which
he knew anything. He became attracted at
this time by Miss Kate Greenaway's picture
1 1

Aubrey Beardsley^

books, and started illuminating menus and in
vitation cards with coloured chalks, making by
this means quite considerable sums for a child.
In August 1884 he and his sister were sent
back to Brighton, where they resided with
an old aunt. Their lives were lonely, and
Beardsley developed a taste for reading of a
rather serious kind — the histories of Freeman
and Greene being his favourite works. He
could not remain a student without creating,
so he started a history of the Armada! In
November of the same year he was sent to
the Brighton Grammar School as a day boy,
becoming a boarder in January 1885. He
was a great favourite with Mr King, the house
master, who encouraged his tastes for reading
and drawing by giving him the use of a sitting-
room and the run of a library. This was
one of the first pieces of luck that attended
Beardsley throughout life. The head-master,
Mr Marshall, I am told, would hold him up as
an example to the other boys, on account of
his industry. His caricatures of the masters
were fully appreciated by them, a rare occur
rence in the lives of artists. He cultivated
besides a talent for acting, and would often

12

SIEGFRIED
Reproduced from the original in the possession of Mrs. Bealby Wright

Aubrey Beardsley

perform before large audiences at the Pavilion.
He organized weekly performances at the
school, designing and illustrating the pro
grammes. He even wrote a farce called "A
Brown Study," which was played at Brighton,
where it received serious attention from the
dramatic critics of the town. He would pur
chase each volume of the Mermaid series of
Elizabethan dramatists then being issued, and
with his sister gave performances during the
holidays. From the record of the " Brighton
College Magazine," Beardsley appears to have
taken a leading role in all histrionic fetes, and
to " The Pied Piper of Hamelin " he contributed
some delightful and racy little sketches, the
first of his drawings, I believe, that were ever
reproduced. In July 1888 he left school, and almost
immediately entered an architect's office in
London. In 1889 he obtained a post in the
Guardian Life and Fire Insurance. During
the autumn of that year the fatal hemorrhages
commenced ; for two years he gave up his
amateur theatricals and did little in the way of
drawing. In 1891, however, he recuperated;
a belief in his own powers revived. He now
*3

Aubrey Beardsley

commenced a whole series of illustrations to
various plays, such as Marlowe's " Tamerlane,"
Congreve's " Way of the World," and various
French works which he was able to enjoy in
the original. He would often speak of the
encouragement and kindness he received at this
period from the Rev. Alfred Gurney, who had
known his family at Brighton, and who was
perhaps the earliest of his friends to realize
that Beardsley possessed something more than
mere cleverness or precocity.
Several people have claimed to discover
Aubrey Beardsley, but I think it truer to say
that he revealed himself, when proper acknow
ledgment has been made to Mr Aymer Vallance,
Mr Joseph Pennell, Mr Frederick Evans, Mr J. M.
Dent, and Mr John Lane, with whom Beardsley's
art will always be associated in connection with
the Yellow Book, that too early daffodil that
came before the swallow dared and could not
take the winds of March for beauty. To
Mr Pennell belongs the credit of introducing
Beardsley's art to the public ; and to Mr Dent
is due the rare distinction of giving him practical
encouragement, by commissioning the illus
trations to the " Morte d' Arthur," long before
14

THE WOMAN IN THE MOON
From "Salome"

Aubrey Beardsley

critics had written anything about him, or any
but a few friends knew of his great powers.
Beardsley was too remarkable a personality to
remain in obscurity. Though I remember with
some amusement how the editor of a well-
known weekly mocked at a prophecy that the
artist was a coming man who would very shortly
excite discussion if not admiration. Fortunately
Mr Pennell, a distinguished artist himself, and
a fearless critic, not only espoused the cause of
the new draughtsman, but became a personal
friend for whom Beardsley always evinced great
affection, and to whom he dedicated his " Album
of Fifty Drawings."
I shall never forget my first meeting with
Aubrey Beardsley, on February 14th, 1892,
at the rooms of Mr Vallance, the well-known
disciple and biographer of William Morris.
Though prepared for an extraordinary person
ality, I never expected the youthful apparition
which glided into the room. He was shy,
nervous, and self-conscious, without any of the
intellectual assurance and ease so characteristic
of him eighteen months later when his success
was unquestioned. He brought a portfolio
of his marvellous drawings, in themselves an
15

Aubrey Beardsley

earnest of genius ; but I hardly paid any attention
to them at first, so overshadowed were they by
the strange and fascinating originality of their
author. In two hours it was not hard to dis
cover that Beardsley's appearance did not belie
him. He was an intellectual Marcellus suddenly
matured. His rather long brown hair, instead
of being "ebouriffe," as the ordinary genius
is expected to wear it, was brushed smoothly
and flatly on his head and over part of his
immensely high and narrow brow. His face
even then was terribly drawn and emaciated.
Except in his manner, I do not think his
general appearance altered very much in spite
of the ill-health and suffering, borne with such
unparalleled resignation and fortitude : he al
ways had a most delightful and engaging smile
both for friends and strangers. He grew less
shy after half an hour, becoming gayer and
more talkative. He was full of Moliere and
"Manon Lescaut" at the time; he seemed
disappointed that none of us was musical; but
he astonished by his knowledge of Balzac an
authority on the subject who was also present.
He spoke much of the National Gallery and
the British Museum, both of which he knew
16

Aubrey Beardsley

with extraordinary thoroughness. He told me
he had only been once to the New Gallery,
where he saw some pictures by Burne- Jones, but
had never been to the Royal Academy. As far
as I know, he never visited the spring shows
of Burlington House. He always, however,
defended that institution with enthusiasm, say
ing he would rather be an Academician than an
artist, " as it takes only one man to make an
artist, but forty to make an Academician."
Our next meeting was a few weeks later,
when he brought me a replica of his " Joan of
Arc." I was anxious to buy the first and better
version, now in the possession of Mr Frederick
Evans, but he refused to part with it at the
time. He seemed particularly proud of the
drawing ; it was the only work of this period
he would allow to have any merit.
In the early summer of 1892 he visited
Burne- Jones and Watts, receiving from the
former artist cordial recognition and excellent
advice which proved invaluable to him. He
attributed to the same great painter the criticism
that " he had learnt too much from the old
masters and would benefit by the training of an
art school." A few days afterwards he pro-
b 17

Aubrey Beardsley

duced a most amusing caricature of himself being
kicked down the stairs of the National Gallery by
Raphael, Titian, and Mantegna, whilst Michael
Angelo dealt a blow on his head with a hammer.
This entertaining little record, I am sorry to
say, was destroyed. Beardsley was always
sensible about friendly and intelligent criticism.
When he reached a position enjoyed by no
artist of his own age, he was swift to remedy
any defect pointed out to him by artists or even
by ordinary friends. I never met anyone so
receptive on all subjects ; he would record what
Mr Pennell or Puvis de Chavannes said in
praise or blame of a particular drawing with
equal candour and good humour. This was
only one of his many amiable qualities. When
he afterwards became a sort of household word
and his fame, or notoriety as his enemies called
it, was established, he never changed in this
respect. He made friends and remained friends
with many for whom his art was totally un
intelligible. Social charm triumphed over all
differences. He would speak with enthusiasm
about writers and artists quite out of sympathy
with his own aims and aspirations. He never
assumed that those to whom he was intro-
18

Aubrey Beardsley

duced either knew or admired his work. His
character was brisk and virile to an extra
ordinary degree. He made enemies, I believe,
by refusing to revolve in mutual admiration
societies or to support literary and artistic cliques.
With the shadow of death always over him and
conscious of the brief time before him, he never
gave himself up to morbid despair or useless
complaints. He determined to enjoy life, and,
equipped with all the curiosity and gaiety of
boyhood, he caught at life's exquisite moments.
There was always a very deep and sincere
religious vein in his temperament, only notice
able to very intimate friends. With all his
power of grasping the essential and absorbing
\ knowledge, he remained charmingly unsophisti
cated. He took people as they came, never
discriminating, perhaps, sufficiently the issues of
life. He was unspoiled by success, unburdened
with worldly wisdom. He was generous to a
fault, spending his money lavishly on his friends
to an extent that became almost embarrassing.
His love and knowledge of books increased
-father than diminished even after he devoted
himself entirely to art. In early days he
would exchange his drawings for illustrated
l9

Aubrey Beardsley

books and critical texts of the English classics
with Mr Frederick Evans, an early and en
thusiastic buyer of his work. His tastes were
not narrow. Poetry, memoirs, history, short
stories, biography, and essays of all kinds
appealed to him ; but he cared little for
novels, except in French. I don't think he
ever read Dickens, Thackeray, and George
Eliot, though he enjoyed Scott during the
last months of his life. He had an early
predilection for lives of the Saints. The
scrap-book of sketches, containing drawings
done prior to 1892, indicates the range and
extent of his taste. There are illustrations
to "Manon Lescaut," "Tartarin," "Madame
Bovary," Balzac ("Le Cousin Pons," the "Contes
Drolatiques "), Racine, Shelley's "Cenci." He
retained his love of the drama, and began to
write a play in collaboration with Mr Brandon
Thomas. While dominated by pre-Raphaelite in
fluences, he read with great avidity "Sidonia the
Sorceress," and "The Shaving of Shagpat," a
favourite book of Rossetti's; and it was with
a view to illustrate Mr Meredith's Arabian
Night that he became introduced to Mr John
Lane, who divides with Mr Herbert Pollit the
20

THE DANCER S REWARD
From " Salome "

Aubrey Beardsley

honour of possessing the finest Beardsleys still
in this country. He read Greek and Latin
authors in translations, and often astonished
scholars by his acute appreciation of their
matter. He approached Dantesque medieval
ism through Rossetti and, later on, at the original
source. Much of his early work illustrated
incidents in the " Divine Comedy." He was
a fervent admirer of the " Romance of the Rose "
in the original, and several mediaeval French
books, but he once told me that he found the
" Morte d'Arthur " very long-winded.
. For one so romantic in the expression of his
art, I should say his literary and artistic tastes
were severely classic, though you would have
expected them to be bizarre. He was ambitious
of literary success, but any aspirations were
wisely discouraged by his admirers. His writings,
however brilliant — and they often were brilliant
— shewed a dangerous cleverness, which on culti
vation might have proved disastrous to the
realization of his true genius. "Under the
Hill" is a delightful experiment in a rococo
style of literature, and it would be difficult to
praise sufficiently the rhythm and metrical adroit
ness of the two poems in the Savoy Maga-
21

Aubrey Beardsley

zine. Though I cannot speak of his musical
attainments, it may be regarded as fortunate
that so remarkable a genius was directed to a
more permanent form of executive power.
His knowledge of hfe, art, and literature
seemed the result of instinct rather than study;
for no one has ever discovered where he found
the time or opportunity for assimilating all he
did. Gregarious and sociable by nature, he
was amusingly secretive about his methods and
times of work. Like other industrious men, he
never pretended to be busy or pressed for time.
He never denied his door to callers, nor refused
to go anywhere on the plea of "work."
He disliked anyone being in the room when
he was drawing, and hastily hid all his materials
if a stranger entered the room. He would
rarely exhibit an unfinished sketch, and care
fully destroyed any he was not thoroughly
satisfied with himself. He carried this sensitive
spirit of selection and self-criticism rather far.
Calling on friends who possessed primitives, he '
would destroy these early relics and leave a
more mature and approved specimen of his art,
or the edition de luxe of some book he had
illustrated. Some of us were so annoyed that
22

TAILPIECE
From " Salomt

Aubrey Beardsley

we were eventually obliged to lock up all early
examples. For though friends thus victimized
were endowed with a more valuable acquisi
tion, they had a natural sentiment and affection
for the unsophisticated designs of his earlier
years. His life, though many-sided and successful,
was outwardly uneventful. In the early summer
of 1892 he entered Professor Brown's night
school at Westminster, but during the day con
tinued his work at the Guardian Fire Insurance
until August, when, by his sister's advice, he
resigned his post. In December he became
acquainted with Mr Pennell, from whose en
couragement and advice he reaped the fullest
advantage. After commencing the decorations
to the " Morte d' Arthur," he ceased to attend
Professor Brown's classes. In February 1893
some of his drawings were first published in
London in the Pall Mall Budget under the
editorship of Mr Lewis Hind, but one of the
most striking of his early designs appeared in
a little college magazine entitled The Bee.
When The Studio was started by Mr Charles
Holme under the able direction of the late
Gleeson-White, Beardsley designed the first
23

Aubrey Beardsley

cover and Mr Pennell contributed the well-
known appreciation of the new artist.
Towards the end of 1893 he commenced
working for Mr John Lane, who issued his
marvellous illustrations to "Salome" in 1894.
In April of the same year appeared the
Yellow Book. To the first four volumes Beardsley
contributed altogether about eighteen illus
trations. From a pictorial point of view this
publication had no other raison d'etre than
as a vehicle for the production of Beardsley's
work, though Henry Harland, in his capacity
as literary editor, revealed the presence of many
new writers among us. Throughout 1894
Beardsley's health seemed to improve, and his
social success was considerable. In the previous
year he had been ridiculed, but now the world
accepted him at Mr Pennell's valuation. The
Beardsley type became quite a fashion, and was
burlesqued at many of the theatres ; his name
and work were on every one's lips. He made
friends with many of his contemporaries dis
tinguished in art and literature. At the house
of one of his friends he delivered a very amus
ing lecture on " Art " which created much
discussion. 24

Aubrey Beardsley

A little later Beardsley was popularly sup
posed to have given pictorial expression to the
views and sentiments of a certain school, and
his drawings were regarded as the outward
artistic sign of inward literary corruption. This
is not the place to discuss the invention of a
mare's nest. He suffered considerably by this
premature attempt to classify his art. Further
efforts to ridicule his work and suppress its
publication were, however, among the most
cheering failures of modern journalism. In
1895 he ceased to contribute to the Yellow
Book, and in January 1896 The Savoy was
started by Leonard Smithers, with Mr Arthur
Symons as the literary editor, who became the
most subtle and discerning of all his critics after
Beardsley's death. Failing health was the only
difficulty with which he had to contend in the
future. From March 1896, when he caught a
severe chill at Brussels, he became a permanent
invalid. He returned to England in May, and
in August went to Bournemouth, where he
spent the autumn and winter.
Those who visited him at Bournemouth never
expected he would live for more than a few
weeks. His courage, however, never failed
25

Aubrey Beardsley

him, and he continued work even while suffer
ing from lung haemorrhage ; but he expressed
a hope and belief, in which he was justified,
that he might be spared one more year. On
March 31st, 1897, he was received into the
Catholic Church. The sincerity of his re
ligious convictions has been affirmed by those
who were with him constantly ; and, as I have
suggested before, the flippancy and careless
nature of his conversation were superficial : he
was always strict in his religious observances.
Among his intimate friends through life were
clergymen and priests who have paid tribute to
the reality and sincerity of his belief.
A week after being received, Beardsley
rallied again, and moved to Paris, but still
required the attention and untiring devotion of
his mother, to whom he was deeply attached.
He never returned to England again. From
time to time he was cheered by visits from Miss
Mabel Beardsley (Mrs Bealby Wright), who
understood her brother as few sisters have done.
For some time he stayed at St Germain, and in
July 1897 he went to Dieppe, where he seemed
almost to have recovered. It was only, however,
for a short time, and in the end of 1897 he
26

FRONTISPIECE
From. "Plays " by John Davidson

Aubrey Beardsley

was hurried to Mentone. He never left his
room after January 25th. The accounts of him
which reached London prepared his friends
for the end. Almost one of his last letters
was to Mr Vincent O'Sullivan, the poet, con
gratulating him on his Introduction to "Vol-
pone," for which Beardsley was making the
illustrations. Beardsley had a considerable
knowledge and appreciation of Ben Jonson.
On March 23rd, 1898, he received the last
sacraments ; and on the 25th, with perfect
resignation, in the presence of his mother and
sister, to whom he had confided messages of
love and sympathy to his many friends, Aubrey
Beardsley passed away.
" Come back in sleep, for in the life
Where thou art not
We find none like thee. Time and strife
And the world's lot
Move thee no more : but love at least
And reverent heart
May move thee, royal and released
Soul, as thou art."
No one could have wished him to live on in
pain and suffering. I think the only great trials
of his life were the periods in which he was
27

Aubrey Beardsley

unfitted for work. His remarkable career was
not darkened by any struggle for recognition.
Few artists havei been so fortunate as Aubrey
Beardsley. His short life was remarkably
happy — at all events during the six years he
was before the public. Everything he did met
with success — a success thoroughly enjoyed by
him. He seemed indifferent to the idle criticism
and violent denunciation with which much of
his art was hailed. I never heard of anyone of
importance who disliked him personally ; on the
other hand, many who were hostile and pre
judiced about his art ceased to attack him
after meeting him. This must have been due
to the magnetism and charm of his individuality,
exercised quite unconsciously, for he never
tried to conciliate people, or "to work the
oracle," but rather gloried in shocking "the
enemy," a boyish failing for which he may be
forgiven. He had considerable intellectual vanity, but
it never relapsed into common conceit. He was
generous in recognizing the talent and genius
of others, but was singularly perverse in some
of his utterances. He said once that only four
of his contemporaries interested him. He
28

THE WAGNERITES

Aubrey Beardsley

bore with extraordinary patience the asser
tions of foolish persons who calmly asserted
that both in America and England other artists
had anticipated the peculiarities of his style and
methods. I have seen the works of these
Lambert Simnels and Perkin Warbecks, and
they proved, one and all, crows in peacocks'
feathers. Beardsley's style, nevertheless, in
fluenced (unfortunately, I think) many excellent
artists both younger and older than himself.
In France his work was accepted without ques
tion: he was always gratified by the cordiality
which greeted him in a country where he was
more generally understood than in his own.
He has illustrious precedents in Constable
and Bonnington. Italy, Austria, and Germany
recognized in him a master some time before
his death. At Berlin his picture of Mrs
Patrick Campbell, the actress, is now in a place
of honour in the Museum. A portrait study of
himself is in the British Museum Print Room ;
a few examples are at South Kensington ; but
all his important work is in private collections ;
much of it is in America and Germany. In
England, putting aside the notoriety and sensa
tion caused by his posters and the Yellow
29

Aubrey Beardsley

Book, appreciation of his work has been con
fined rather to the few. He enjoyed, however,
the friendship and intimacy of great numbers of
people, shewing that his amiable qualities, no
less than his art, received due recognition. His
conversation was vehement and witty rather
than humorous. He had a remarkable talent
for mimicking, very rarely exercised. He loved
argument, and supported theories for the sake
of argument in the most convincing manner,
leaving strangers with a totally wrong im
pression about himself, a deception to which
he was much addicted. He possessed what is
called an artificial manner, cultivated to an
extent that might be mistaken for affectation.
He never could sit still for very long, and he
made use of gesture for emphasis. His peculiar
gait has been very happily rendered in a portrait
of him by Mr Walter Sickert; he also sat to
M. Blanche, the well-known French portrait
painter ; the portrait by himself is tinged with
caricature. To estimate the art of Aubrey Beardsley is
not difficult. That his drawings must excite
discussion at all times is only a proof of their
3°

Aubrey Beardsley

,lasting worth. They can never be dismissed
with unkindly comment, nor shelved into the
limbo of art Criticism which waits for many
blameless and depressing productions of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among
artists and men of letters no less than with that
great inartistic body, "the art-loving public,"
Aubrey Beardsley's name will always call forth
wonder, admiration, speculation, and contempt.
It should be conceded, however, that his work
cannot appeal to everyone ; and that many who
have the highest perception of the beautiful see
only the repulsive and unwholesome in the
troubled, exotic expression of his genius.
Fortunately, no reputation in art or letters
rests on the verdict of majorities — it is the
opinion of the few which finally triumphs.
Artists and critics have already dwelt on
the beauty of Aubrey Beardsley's line, which
in his early work too often resolved itself
into mere caligraphy; but the mature and
perfect illustrations to "Salome" and "The
Rape of the Lock" evince a mastery unsur
passed by any artist in any age or country.
No one ever carried a simple line to its in
evitable end with such sureness and firmness
31

Aubrey Beardsley

of purpose. And this is one of the lessons
which even an accomplished draughtsman may
learn from his drawings, in any age when
scraggy execution masquerades under impres
sionism. Aubrey Beardsley did not shirk a
difficulty by leaving lines to the imagination
of critics, who might enlarge on the reticence
of his medium. Art cant and studio jargon do
not explain his work. It is really only the
presence or absence of beauty in his drawing,
and his wonderful powers of technique which
need trouble his admirers or detractors. Nor
are we confronted with any conjecture as to
what Aubrey Beardsley might have done — he
has left a series of achievements. While his
early death caused deep sorrow among his per
sonal friends, there need be no sorrow for an
" inheritor of unfulfilled renown." Old age is
no more a necessary complement to the realiza
tion of genius than premature death. Within
six years, after passing through all the imitative
stages of probation, he produced masterpieces
he might have repeated but never surpassed.
His style would have changed. He was too
receptive and too restless to acquiesce in a
single convention. 3^

ATALANTA

Aubrey Beardsley

This is hardly the place to dwell on the great
strides which black and white art made in the
nineteenth century. It has been called the most
modern of the arts ; for the most finished drawings
of the old masters were done with a view to
serve as studies or designs to be transferred to
canvas, metal, and wood, not for frames at an
expensive dealer's. Vittore Pisano and Gentile
Bellini would hardly have dared to mount their
delightful studies and offer them as pictures
to the critics and patrons of their day. At all
events it were safer to say, that appreciation of
a drawing for itself, without relation to the book
or page it was intended to adorn or destroy, is
comparatively modern. It is necessary to keep
this in mind, because the suitability of Beardsley's
work to the books he embellished was often
accidental. His designs must be judged inde
pendently, as they were conceived, without any
view of interpreting or even illustrating a
particular author. He was too subjective to
be a mere illustrator. Profoundly interested in
literature for the purposes of his art, he only
extracted from it whatever was suggestive as
pattern ; he never professed to interpret for dull
people, unable to understand what they read,
c 33

Aubrey Beardsley

any more than the mediaeval illuminator and
carver of grotesques attempted to explain the
mysteries of the Christian faith on the borders
of missals and breviaries or the miserere seats of
the choir. His art was, of course, intensely
literary, to use the word hated of modern
critics, but his expression of it was the legitimate
literature of the artist, not the art peculiar to
literature. He did not attempt, or certainly
never succeeded in giving, pictorial revision to a
work of literature in the sense that Blake has
done for the book of Job, and Botticelli for the
"Divine Comedy." While hardly satisfying
those for whom any work of art guilty of
"subject" becomes worthless, this immunity
from the conventions of the illustrator will
secure for Beardsley a larger share of esteem
among artists pure and simple than has ever
fallen to William Blake, who appeals more to
men of letters than to the artist or virtuoso.
The uncritical profess to find many terrible
meanings in Aubrey Beardsley's drawings ; and
he will probably never be freed from the charge
of symbolism. However morbid the sentiment
in some of his work, and often there was a
macabre, an unholy insistence on the less beauti-
34

Aubrey Beardsley

ful side of human things, the cabala of the
symbolists was a sealed book to him. Such
things were entirely foreign to his lucid and
vigorous intelligence. There is hardly a draw
ing of his that does not explain itself; the
commentator will search in vain for any
hieroglyphic or symbolic intention. The hieratic
archaism of his early work misled many people,
for whom pre-Raphaelitism means presupposition.
Of mysticism, that stumbling-block, he had none
at all. " The Initiation of a Neophyte into the
Black Art" would seem to contradict such a
statement. The fantasy and grotesqueness of
that lurid and haunting composition have noth
ing in common with the symbolism of black
magic, the ritual of freemasonry, or all the
fascinating magic to be found in the works of
Eliphaz Levi. The sumptuous accessories in
which he revelled had no other than a decora
tive intention, giving sometimes balance to a
drawing, or conveying a literary suggestion
necessary for its interpretation.
Artists are blamed for what they have not
tried to do ; or for the absence of qualities
distinguishing the work of an entirely different
order of intellect ; for their indifference to the
35

Aubrey Beardsley

observations of others. As who should ask
from Reynolds a faithful reproduction of textile
fabrics ; and from Carlo Crivelli the natural
phenomena of nature we expect from Turner
and Constable ? For nature as it should be, in
the works of Corot and Turner ; for nature
made easy, in modern English landscape; for
nature without tears, in the impressionist fashion,
or as popularly viewed through the camera,
Aubrey Beardsley had no feeling. He was
frankly indifferent to picturesque peasants, the
beauties of "lovely spots," either in England or
France. A devout Catholic, the ringing of the
Angelus did not lure him to present fields of
mangel-wurzels in an evening haze. The
treatment of nature in the larger and truer sense
of the word had little attraction for him; he
never tried, therefore, to represent air, atmo
sphere, and light, as many clever modern artists
have done in black and white ! Though Claude,
that master of light and shadow, was a landscape
painter who really interested him. Beardsley's
landscape, therefore, is formal, primitive, con
ventional ; a breath of air hardly shakes the
delicate leaves of the straight poplars and
willows that grow by his serpentine streams.
36

THE MYSTERIOUS ROSE GARDEN

Aubrey Beardsley

The great cliffs, leaning down in promontories
to the sea, have that unreal, architectural
appearance so remarkable in the West of Corn
wall, a place he had never visited. Yet his
love and observation of flowers, trees, and
gardens are very striking in the drawings
for the "Morte d' Arthur" and the Savoy
Magazine, but it is the nature of the landscape
gardener, not the landscape painter. There is
some truth in the half-playful, half-unfriendly
criticism, that his pictures were a form of
romantic map-making. Future experts, how
ever, may be trusted to deal with absence of
chiaroscuro, values, tones, and the rest. In
only one of his drawings, conceived, curiously
enough, in the manner of Burne-Jones (an
unlikely model), is there anything approaching
what is usually termed atmosphere. Eliminating,
therefore, all that must not be expected from
his art — mere illustration, realism, symbolism
and naturalism — in what, may be asked, does
his supreme achievement consist ? He has
decorated white sheets of paper as they have
never been decorated before; whether hung
on the wall, reproduced in a book, or concealed
in a museum, they remain among the most
37

Aubrey Beardsley

precious and exquisite works in the art of the
nineteenth century, resembling the designs of
William Blake only — in that they must be
hated, misunderstood, and neglected, ere they
are recognized as works of a master. With
more simple materials than those employed by
the fathers of black and white art, Beardsley
has left memorials no less wonderful than those
of the Greek vase-painters, so highly prized by
artists and archaeologists alike, but no less
difficult for the uninitiated to appreciate and
understand.
^ The astonishing fertility of his invention, and
the amount of work he managed to produce,
were inconceivable ; yet there is never any sign
of hurry; there is no scamping in his deft and
tidy drawing. The neatness of his most ela
borate designs would suggest many sketches
worked over and discarded before deciding on
the final form and composition. Strange to say,
this was not his method. He sketched every
thing in pencil, at first covering the paper with
apparent scrawls, constantly rubbed out and
blocked in again, until the whole surface
became raddled from pencil, indiarubber, and
knife ; over this incoherent surface he worked
38

FRONTISPIECE
' A Nocturne of Chopin "

Aubrey Beardsley

in Chinese ink with a gold pen, often ignoring
the pencil lines, afterwards carefully removed.
So every drawing was invented, built up, and
completed on the same sheet of paper. And
the same process was repeated even when he
produced replicas. At first he was indifferent
to process reproduction, but, owing to Mr
Pennell's influence, he later on always worked
with that end in view ; thereby losing, some
will think, his independence. But he had
nothing to complain of — Mr Pennell's conten
tion about process was never so well proved as
in Beardsley's case. His experiments in colour
were not always successful, two of his most
delightful designs he ruined by tinting. In
the posters and Studio lithograph, how
ever, the crude colour is highly effective, and
" Mademoiselle de Maupin " shewed he might
have mastered water-colour had he chosen to
do so. There are at present in the market
many coloured forgeries of his work : these
have been contrived by tracing or copying the
reproductions ; the colour is often used to con
ceal the paucity of the drawing and hesitancy
of line ; they are nearly always versions of
well-known designs, and profess to be replicas.
39

Aubrey Beardsley

When there is any doubt the history and
provenance of the work should be carefully
studied. It is not difficult to trace the pedigree
of any genuine example.
A good deal has been made out of Beardsley's
love of dark rooms and lamp light, but this has
been grossly exaggerated. He had no great
faith in north lights and studio paraphernalia,
so necessary for those who use mediums other
than his own. He would sometimes draw on a
perfectly flat table, facing the light, which
would fall directly on the paper, the blind
slightly lowered.
The sources of Beardsley's inspiration have
led critics into grievous errors. He was accused
of imitating artists, some of whose work he had
never seen, and of whose names he was ignorant
at the time the alleged plagiarism was per
petrated — Felicien Rops may be mentioned
as an instance. Beardsley contrived a style
long before he came across any modern French
illustration. He was innocent of either Salon,
the Rosicrucians, and the Royal Academy alike ;
but his own influence on the Continent is said
to be considerable. That he borrowed freely
and from every imaginable master, old and new,
40

Aubrey Beardsley

is, of course, obvious. Eclectic is certainly
applicable to him. But what he took he en
dowed with a fantastic and fascinating originality;
to some image or accessory, familiar to anyone
who has studied the old masters, he added the
touch of modernity which brings them nearer to
us, and reached refinements never thought of
by the old masters. Imagination is the great
pirate of art, and with Beardsley becomes a
pretext for invention.
Prior to 1891 his drawings are interesting
only for their precocity ; they may be regarded,
as one of his friends has said, more as a presage
than a precedent. You marvel, on realizing the
short interval which elapsed between their pro
duction and the masterpieces of his maturity.
His first enthusiasm was for the work of the
Italian primitives, as Mr Charles Whibley
says, distinguished "for its free and flow
ing line." Even at a later time, when he
devoted himself to eighteenth century models
and ideals, his love of Andrea Mantegna never
deserted him. He always kept reproductions
from Mantegna at his side, and declared that he
never ceased to learn secrets from them. In
the "Litany of Mary Magdalen" and the two
4*

Aubrey Beardsley

versions of " Joan of Arc" this influence is very
marked. A Botticelli phase followed, and
though afterwards discarded, was reverted to
at a later period. The British Museum and the
National Gallery were at first his only schools
of art. As a matter of course, Rossetti and
Burne-Jones, but chiefly through photographs
and prints, succeeded in their turn; the in
fluence of Burne-Jones lasting longer than any
other. Fairly drugged with too much observation of
old and modern masters, he entered Professor
Brown's art school, where he successfully
got rid of much that was superfluous. The
three months' training had the most salutary
effect. He now took the advice attributed
to Burne - Jones, and unlearned much of
his acquired pedantry. The mere penman
ship which disfigured some of his early work
entirely disappeared. His handling became
finer, his drawing less timid. The sketch of
Moliere, it may be interesting to note, belongs
to this period of his art.
A few months afterwards, he commenced the
" Morte d' Arthur." Suggested and intended to
rival the volumes of the Kelmscott Press, it is
42

Chopin. Ballade m.'0p47(

Reproduced by permission of Charles Holme, Hsqre.

Aubrey Beardsley

his most popular and least satisfactory per
formance. Still the borders have far more
variety and invention than those of Morris ;
the intricate splendours of mediaeval manu
scripts are intelligently imitated or adapted.
The initial- and tail-pieces are delightful in
themselves, and among the most exquisite of
his grotesques and embellishments. But the
popularity of the book was due to its lack of
originality, not to its individuality. Medievalism
for the middle classes always ensures an ap
preciative audience. Oddly enough, Morris
was said to be annoyed by the sincerest form
of flattery. Perhaps he felt that every school
of art comes to an end with the birth of the
founder, and that Beardsley was only exercising
himself in an alien field of which Morris himself
owned the tithe. At all events it is not unlikely
that Beardsley aroused in the great poet and
decorator the same suspicion that he had
undoubtedly done in Watts.
The " Morte d' Arthur " may be said, for
convenience, to close Aubrey Beardsley's first
period ; but he modified his style during the
progress of the publication, and there is no
unity of intention in his types or scheme of
43

Aubrey Beardsley

decoration. He was gravitating Japanwards.
He began, however, his so-called Japanesques
long before seeing any real Japanese art, except
what may be found in the London shop windows
on cheap trays or biscuit-boxes. He never
thought seriously of borrowing from this source
until some one not conversant with Oriental
art insisted on the resemblance of his draw
ings to Kakemonos. It was quite accidental.
Beardsley was really studying with great care
and attention the Crivellis in the National
Gallery ; their superficial resemblance to
Japanese work occasioned an error from which
Beardsley, quick to assimilate ideas and modes
of expression, took a suggestion, unconsciously
and ignorantly offered, and studied genuine
examples. " Raphael Sanzio " (first version)
was produced prior to this incident, and
" Madame CigaWs Birthday Party " immedi
ately afterwards. His emulation of the Japanese
never left him until the production of the
Savoy Magazine. In my view this was the only
bad artistic influence which ever threatened
to endanger his originality, or permanently
vitiate his manner. The free use of Chinese
ink, together with his intellectual vitality, saved
44

THE IJARON S PRAYER
From " The Rape of the Lock "

Aubrey Beardsley

him from " succumbing to Japan," to use Mr
Pennell's excellent phrase.
A series of grotesques to decorate some
rather silly anthologies produced in the same
year as the " Morte d' Arthur " are marvels of
ingenuity, and far more characteristic. With
them he began a new period, throwing over the
deliberate archaism and mediasvalism, of which
he began to tire. In the illustrations to
"Salome," he reached the consummation of
the new convention he created for himself;
they are, collectively, his masterpiece. In the
whole range of art there is nothing like them.
You can trace the origin of their development,
but you cannot find anything wherewith to
compare them ; they are absolutely unique.
Before commencing " Salome " two events
contributed to give Beardsley a fresh impetus
and stimulate his method of expression : a series
of visits to the collection of Greek vases in the
British Museum (prompted by an essay of Mr
D. S. McColl), and to the famous Peacock
Room of Mr Whistler, in Prince's Gate — one
the antithesis of Japan, the other of Burne-
Jones. Impressionable at all times to novel
sensations, his artistic perceptions vibrated with
45

Aubrey Beardsley

a new and inspired enthusiasm. Critical apprecia
tion under his pen meant creation. From the
Greekvase painting he learned that drapery can be
represented effectually with a few lines, disposed
with economy, not by a number of unfinished
scratches and superfluous shading. If the
"Salome" drawings have any fault at all, it is
that the texture of the pictures suggests some
other medium than pen and ink, as Mr Walter
Crane has pointed out in his other work. They
are wrought rather than drawn, and might be
designs for the panel of a cabinet, for Limoges
or Oriental enamel. " The Rape of the Lock "
is, therefore, a more obvious example of black
and white art. Beardsley's second period lasted
until the fourth volume of the Yellow Book,
in which the " Wagnerites" should be mentioned
as one of the finest. In 1896 Beardsley, many
people think to the detriment of his style, turned
his attention to the eighteenth century, in the
literature of which he was always deeply in
terested. Eisen, Moreau, Watteau, Cochin,
Pietro Longhi, now became his masters. The
alien romantic art of Wagner often supplied the
theme and subject. The level of excellence
sustained throughout the Savoy Magazine
46

Aubrey Beardsley

is extraordinary, in view of the terrible state
of his health. His unexampled precision of
line hardly ever falters; and while his compo
sition gains in simplicity, his capacity for detail
has not flagged. It is, perhaps, an accident
that in his most pathetic drawing, " The Death
of Pierrot '," his hand seems momentarily to have
lost its cunning. The same year he gave us
"The Rape of the Lock," regarded by some
artists as the testament of his genius ; and an
even more astonishing set of drawings to the
"Lysistrata" of Aristophanes. These are grander
than the "Rape of the Lock," and larger in
treatment than anything he ever attempted.
Privately issued, Beardsley was able to give full
rein to a Rabelaisian fantasy, which he some
times cultivated with too great persistence.
Irritated by what he considered as over-niceness
in some of his critics, he seemed determined to
frighten his public. There is nothing unwhole
some or suggestive about the " Lysistrata "
designs : they are as frank, free, and outspoken
as the text. For the countrymen of Chaucer
to simulate indignation about them can only be
explained " because things seen are greater than
things heard." Yet, when an artist frankly deals
47

Aubrey Beardsley

with forbidden subjects, the old canons regular
of English art begin to thunder, the critics for
get their French accent ; the old Robert Adam,
which is in all of us, asserts himself; we fly for
the fig-leaves. A real artist, Beardsley has not
burdened himself with chronology or archaeo
logy. Conceived somewhat in the spirit of the
eighteenth century, the period of graceful in
decency, there is here, however, an Olympian
air, a statuesque beauty, only comparable to the
antique vases. The illusion is enhanced by the
absence of all background, and this gives an
added touch of severity to the compositions.
Throughout 1896 the general tendency
of his style remains uniform, though without
sameness. He adapted his technique to the
requirements of his subject. Mindful of the
essential, rejecting the needless, he always
realized his genius and its hmitations. From
the infinite variety of the Savoy Magazine it is
difficult to choose any of particular import
ance : for his elaborate manner, the first plate
to " Under the Hill"; and in a simpler style,
the fascinating illustration to his own poem,
" The Barber " ; " Ave Atque Vale " and " The
Death of Pierrot" have, besides, a human interest
48

THE BATTLE OF BEAUX AND BELLES
From " The Rape of the Lock "

Aubrey Beardsley

over and above any artistic quality they possess.
For the " Volpone " drawings Beardsley again
developed his style, and seeking for new effects,
reverted to pure pencil work. The ornate,
delicate initial letters, all he lived to finish,
must be seen in the originals before their
sumptuous qualities, their solemn melancholy
dignity, their dexterous handling, can be ap
preciated. The use of a camel' s-hair brush for
the illustrations to " Mademoiselle de Maupin"
one of his last works, should be noted, as he so
rarely used one. Beardsley's invention never
failed him, so that it is almost impossible to take
a single drawing, or set of drawings, as typical
of his art. Each design is rather a type of his
own intellectual mood.
If the history of grotesque remains to be
written, it is already illustrated by his art. A
subject little understood, it belongs to the dim
ways of criticism. There is no canon or school,
and the artist is allowed to be wilful, untram
melled by rule or precedent. True grotesque
is not the art either of primitives or decadents,
but that of skilled and accomplished workmen
who have reached the zenith of a peculiar con
vention, however confined and limited that con-
d 49

Aubrey Beardsley

vention may be. Byzantine art, one of our
links with the East, should some day furnish
us with a key to a mystery which is now obscured
by symbolists and students of serpent worship.
The Greeks, with their supreme sanity and un
rivalled plastic sense, afford us no real examples,
though their archaic art is often pressed into
the category. Beardsley, who received recog
nition for this side of his genius, emphasized
the grotesque to an extent that precluded any
popularity among people who care only for the
trivial and "pretty." In him it was allied to a
mordant humour, a certain fescennine abstraction
which sometimes offends : this, however, does
not excuse the use of the word "eccentric,"
more misapplied than any word in the Enghsh
language, except perhaps " grotesque " and
"picturesque." All great art is eccentric to
the conservative multitude. The decoration on
the Parthenon was so eccentric that Pheidias
was put in prison. The works of Whistler
and Burne-Jones, once derided as eccentric, are
now accepted as the commencement of great
traditions. All future art will be dubbed
eccentric, trampled on, and despised ; even as
the first tulip that blossomed in England was
5°

Aubrey Beardsley

rooted out and burnt for a worthless weed by
the conscientious Scotch gardener.
To compare Beardsley with any of his con
temporaries would be unjust to them and to
him. He belonged to no school, and can leave
no legend, in the sense that Rossetti, Whistler,
and Professor Legros have done ; he proclaimed
no theory ; he left no counsel of perfection to
those who came after him. In England and
America a horde of depressing disciples aped
his manner with a singular want of success ;
while admirable and painstaking artists modified
their own convictions in the cause of unpopu
larity with fatal results. The sensuous charm
of Beardsley's imagination and his mode of
expression have only a superficial resemblance
to the foreign masters of black and white. He
continued no great tradition of the 'sixties ; has
nothing in common with the inventive and
various genius of Mr Charles Ricketts ; nothing
of the pictorial propriety that distinguishes the
work of his friend, Mr Pennell, or the homo
geneous congruity of Boyd Houghton, Charles
Keene, and Mr Frederic Sandys. He made use
of different styles where other men employed
different mediums. Unperplexed by painting
5i

Aubrey Beardsley

or etching or lithography, he was satisfied with
the simplest of all materials, attaining therewith
unapproachable executive power. Those who
cavil at his flawless technique ignore the specific
quality of drawing characterising every great
artist. The grammar of art exists only to be
violated. Its rules can be learnt by anyone.
Those who have no artistic perception invariably
find fault with the perspective, just as those who
cannot write a well-balanced sentence are always
swift to detect faults in grammar or spelling.
There are, of course, weaknesses in the ex
tremities of Beardsley's figures — the hands and
feet being interruptions rather than continua
tions of the limbs. Occasional carelessness in
this respect is certainly noticeable, and the
structure of his figures is throughout capricious.
It was no fault in his early work ; the hands and
feet in the uJoan of Arc" if crude and exag
gerated, being carefully modelled. While the
right hand of "Salome'" in " The Dancer's
Reward" grasping the head of the Baptist,
is perfectly drawn, the left is feeble, when
examined closely. For sheer drawing nothing
can equal the nude figure in the colophon to
"SalomeV The outstretched, quivering hands
52

Aubrey Beardsley

of Ali Bdba are intentionally rendered larger
than proportion allows, to render dramatic ex
pression, not reality. For the purpose of effect
he adapted proportions, realizing that perfect
congruity and reality are irreconcilable. None
of the figures in the dramatic " Battle of Beaux
and Belles " could sit on the fallen chair in the
foreground. There is no need to disturb ourselves with
hopes and fears for the estimation with which
posterity will cherish his memory ; art history
cannot afford to overlook him ; it could hardly
resist the pretext of moralising, expatiating and
explaining away so considerable a factor in the
book illustration of the nineties. As a mere
comment on the admirations of the last twenty
years of the nineteenth century, Beardsley is in
valuable ; he sums up all the delightful manias,
all that is best in modern appreciation — Greek
vases, Italian primitives, the "Hypnerotomachia,"
Chinese porcelain, Japanese Kakemonos, Renais
sance friezes, old French and English furniture,
rare enamels, mediseval illumination, the debon-
naire masters of the eighteenth century, the
English pre-Raphaelites. There are differences
of kind in esthetic beauty, and for Beardsley it
53

Aubrey Beardsley

was the marriage of arabesque to figures and
objects comely or fantastic, or in themselves
ugly. For hitherto the true arabesque abhorred
the graven image made of artists' hands. To
future draughtsmen he will have something of
the value of an old master, studied for that
fastidious technique which critics believed to
be a trick ; and collectors of his work may live
to be rallied for their taste ; but the wheat and
the chaff contrive to exist together through the
centuries. A passing reference should be made to the
Beardsley of popular delusion. A student of
Callot and Hogarth, he took suggestions from
the age in which he lived and from the litera
ture of English and French contemporaries, but
with no implicit acceptance of the tenets of any
groups or schools which flutter the dove-cots of
Fleet Street. He stood apart, independent of
the shibboleths of art and literature, with the
grim and sometimes mocking attention of a
spectator. He revealed rather than created a
feminine type, offering no solution for the
problems of Providence.
Applying the epithet " original " to an art
so intensely reminiscent, so ingeniously retro-
54

D ALBERT IN SEARCH OF IDEALS
From " Mademoiselle de Man pin." Reproduced from the original in the possession of Mrs, Bealby
Wright

Aubrey Beardsley

spective, might seem paradoxical to those
unacquainted with Beardsley's more elegant
achievements. His is not the originality of
Corot and Whistler, with a new interpreta
tion of nature, another scheme of art and
decoration, but rather the scholarly originality of
the Carracci — a scholarship grounded on a thou
sand traditions and yet striking an entirely new
note in art. In his imagination, his choice of
motive, his love for inanimate nature, his senti
ment for accessory, — rejected by many modern
artists, still so necessary to the modern temper,
— his curious type, which quite overshadowed
that of the pre-Raphaelites, the singular tech
nical qualities at his command, Beardsley has
no predecessors, no rivals. Who has ever
managed to suggest such colour in masses of
black deftly composed? Reference to the text
is unnecessary to learn that the hair of Herodias
was purple. His style was mobile, dominating
over, or subordinate to the subject, as his
genius dictated. He twisted human forms,
some will think, into fantastic peculiar shapes,
becoming more than romantic — antinomian. He
does not appeal to experience but to expres
sion. The tranquil trivialities of what is usually
55

Aubrey Beardsley

understood by the illustration of books had no
meaning for him ; and before any attempt is
made to discriminate and interpret the spirit,
the poetical sequence, the literary inspiration
which undoubtedly existed throughout his work,
side by side with technical experiments, his
exemption from the parallels of criticism must
be remembered duly.

56

LIST OF DRAWINGS
BY AUBREY BEARDSLEY
COMPILED BY AYMER VALLANCE

LIST OF DRAWINGS
BY AUBREY BEARDSLEY
JUVENILIA
i. A Carnival. Long procession of many figures in fifteenth
and sixteenth century costume. Water-colour drawing.
Unpublished. Given by the artist to his grandfather,
the late Surgeon-Major William Pitt. c. 1 880.
2. The Jackdaw of Rheims, set of illustrations to the poem.
Unpublished, c. 1884.
3. Virgil's "-5£neid," nine comic illustrations to Book II.
The title-page, written in rough imitation of printing,
with the Artist's naif and inaccurate spelling, is
as follows : — Illustrationes de | liber Secundus |
^Eneidos | Publius Wirgius Maronis | by | Beardslius
| de | Brightelmstoniensis. The illustrations are
entitled : —
1. Laocoon hurleth his spear against the horse.
11. Laocoon and son crunched up.
in. Little July tries to keep up with Papa. Old
Father Anchises sitteth on Papa's shoulders and
keeps a good look-out.
iv. Parvi lulus.
v. Helen.
vi. Panthus departs, bag and baggage.
vii. Sinon telleth his tale unto King Priam.
59

Aubrey Beardsley

viii. One of the cinders of Illium.
ix. (No title.) The drawing, to illustrate two
comic verses written at the top of the paper,
represents ./Eneas being carried up into the air
by means of a balloon attached to his helmet.
All the above are drawn in ordinary ink upon plain
white paper of the kind used for rough work at the
school, and all are of uniform size, "]\ x 5 inches,
except No. 9, which is on a double-size sheet, measuring
7^ x 10 inches. Unpublished. (Property of H. A.
Payne, Esq.) September to December 1886.
Virgil's "jEneid," nineteen humorous sketches illus
trative of Book II., entitled : —
1. JEneas relateth the tale to Dido.
11. Laocoon hurls the spear.
111. Sinon is brought before Priam.
iv. Calchas will not betray anyone.
v. " All night I lay hid in a weedy lake."
vi. The Palladium is snatched away.
vii. The Palladium jumpeth.
vni. Laocoon sacrificeth on the sand.
ix. Sinon opens the bolt,
x. Hector's ghost.
xi. ./Eneas heareth the clash of arms.
xn. Panthus fleeth.
xm. Pyrrhus exulteth.
xiv. Death of Priam.
xv. JEneas debateth whether he shall slay Helen.
xvi. Venus appeareth to ./Eneas.
xvii. Jupiter hurls the lightning.
xviii. ./Eneas and company set out from Troy.
xix. ./Eneas seeth Crcusa's ghost.
60

Aubrey Beardsley

The above drawings in ordinary ink are contained
in a copy-book, 8 x 6 J inches. Unpublished. Ex
hibited in London at Carfax & Co.'s Galleries,
October 1904. (Property of Harold Hartley, Esq.)
End of 1886.
5. The Pope weighs heavily on the Church. Pen-
drawing contained in the same copy-book with the
last-named.
6. John smiles, a comic illustration to the school history
book, representing King John in the act of signing
Magna Charta. Pen-drawing on paper 7^ x 5 inches.
Unpublished. (Property of H. A. Payne, Esq.)
7. Saint Bradlaugh, M.P., a caricature. Pen-drawing on
a half sheet of notepaper. Unpublished. (Property of
H. A. Payne, Esq.)
8. Autumn Tints. Caricature in black and white of the
artist's schoolmaster, Mr Marshall, expounding to his
pupils the beauties of nature. Unpublished. Given to
Ernest Lambert, Esq., Brighton, c. 1886-7.
Beside the above-named there must have been numbers
of such drawings belonging to this early period ; for in
his schooldays Aubrey Beardsley was, to quote the
words of Mr H. A. Payne, " constantly doing these
little, rough, humorous sketches, which he gave away
wholesale." Many have been destroyed or lost, others
dispersed abroad. Thus, for instance, one old Brighton
Grammar School boy, C. E. Pitt-Schenkel, told
Mr Payne that he was in possession of some, which he
took out to South Africa. 6l

Aubrey Beardsley

9. The Jubilee Cricket Analysis. Eleven tiny pen-and-
ink sketches, entitled respectively : —
1. A good bowler.
11. Over.
in. Slip.
iv. Square leg.
v. Shooters.
vi. Caught.
vii. A block.
viii. A demon bowler.
ix. Stumped.
x. Long leg.
xi. Cutting a ball.
All these subjects being represented, in humorous fashion,
by literal equivalents. These drawings, though they
cannot pretend to any merit, are notable as the earliest
specimens to be published of the artist's work. Together
they formed a whole-page photo-lithographic illustration
in Past and Present, the Brighton Grammar School
Magazine, June 1887.
10. Congreve's "Double Dealer," illustration ofa scene
from, comprising Maskwell and Lady Touchwood. Pen
drawing with sepia wash, on a sheet of paper 13A x 11
inches. Unpublished. (Property of H. A. Payne, Esq.)
Signed and dated June 30, 1888.
11. Holywell Street. Wash drawing. First published in
The Poster, Aug. - Sept. 1 898. Republished in
"The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley, with a
Prefatory Note by H. C. Marillier." John Lane,
March 1899. (Property of Charles B. Cochran, Esq.,
1888.)
62

Aubrey Beardsley

12. The Pay of the Pied Piper: A Legend of Hamelin
Town. Eleven line .drawings in illustration of, as
follows : —
i. Entrance of Councillors, headed by Beadle
carrying a mace. Reproduced in The West
minster Budget, March 25, 1898.
n. Rats feeding upon a cheese in a dish. Repro
duced in Westminster Budget, March 25, 1898.
111. Child climbing into an armchair to escape from
the rats. Reproduced in The Poster, Aug.-
Sept. 1898.
iv. The Sitting of the Council, under the presidency
of the Burgomaster.
v. Deputation of Ladies.
vi. Two rats on their hind legs, carrying off the
Beadle's mace : behind them are three rats
running. Reproduced in Westminster Budget,
March 25, 1898.
vii. Meeting between the Beadle and the Piper.
viii. The rats follow the Piper out of the town. Re
published in Westminster Budget, March 25,
1898, and in The Poster, Aug.-Sept. 1898.
ix. Citizens rejoice at the departure of the rats.
x. The Piper is dismissed by the Beadle. Re
published in Westminster Budget, March 25,
1898, and also in Magazine of Art, May
1898.
xi. The Piper entices away the children.
The above illustrations vary in size from 3^ x 2 J to
61 x 4I inches. They are unsigned, but a prefatory
note describes them as being "the perfectly original
designs and drawings of a boy now in the school,
^3

Aubrey Beardsley

A. V. Beardsley " ; and adds : " Our regret is that,
lacking experience in the preparation of drawings for
the photo-engraver, the reproductions should fall so far
Bhort of the original sketches." Published in the
programme and book of words of the Brighton
Grammar School Annual Entertainment at the Dome,
on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 1888; bound up afterwards
with Past and Present, February 1889. Latter part of
1888.
13. A Scrap-Book, size 9J x 7 inches, the fly-leaf inscribed,
in his own writing, A. Beardsley, 6/5/90, presented by
the artist's mother to Robert Ross, Esq. Contains the
following drawings, mounted as scraps : —
1. Manon Lescaut, three drawings to illustrate different
scenes from. Executed with very fine pen and
ink, the latter having, as compared with maturer
works, a brownish tinge. One of them first
appeared in " A Second Book of Fifty Drawings
by Aubrey Beardsley" (Leonard Smithers,
December 1 898), and all three were included
in « The Later Work of Aubrey Beardsley "
(John Lane, 1901).
11. La Dame aux Camillas. 4$ inches square, pen and
brownish ink with wash. First published in
"Second Book," and afterwards in "Later
Work." This is a totally different design from
that which afterwards appeared, with the same
title, in " The Yellow Book." See below.
m. Tartarin, two illustrations of, in pencil and colours,
size 4| x 2| and 4J x 3J inches respectively.
iv. La Lecon (Madame Bovary). 5J x 6|. Chinese
64

Aubrey Beardsley

white and dark sepia wash. First published in
" Second Book," and again in " Later
Work."
v. L'Abbe Birotteau (Cure de Tours). 3 x 2 inches.
Pen-and-ink with wash, on pale greenish paper.
vi. L'Abbe Troubert (Cure de Tours). 5 x 2f inches.
Dark sepia wash.
vii. Madame Bovary. 5^ x 3^ inches. Pencil. First
published in " Second Book," and again in
"Later Work."
viii. Sapho (Daudet). Wanting. Over its place has
been gummed another drawing, also wanting, its
title written at the foot, L'homme qui rit.
ix. Le Cousin Pons. 5 -J- x 2§ inches. Indian
ink.
x. Portrait of Alphonse Daudet. 2 J x 2^ inches.
Indian ink on pale blue paper.
xi. Watteau, Ma Cousine (Cousin Pons). 5^ x 2-|
inches. Pen-and-ink with wash on pale grey
toned paper.
xn. Mademoiselle Gamard (Cure de Tours). 3^ x 2^-
inches. Indian ink wash.
xm. Madame Cibot (Cousin Pons). 4 x 2-| inches.
Indian ink wash.
xiv. (Jack) Attendons ! 3§ inches high, irregular sil
houette. Dark sepia wash.
xv. Jeanne D'Arc, the childhood of. 9x3^ inches.
Sepia and madder wash on toned paper. First
published in " Second Book," again in " Later
Work."
xvi. Frontispiece to Balzac's "Contes Drolatiques."
6f x 4^ inches. Drawn after the manner of
E 65

Aubrey Beardsley

Richard Doyle. First published in " Second
Book," again in " Later Work."
m. Ph&dre (Act ii. scene 5). 3^ x 3J inches. Pencil
and colours. First published in " Second
Book," again in "Later Work."
111. Manon Lescaut, three-quarter length, woman to
left, with fan. 5-^ x 3 J inches. Water-colour on
grey paper. First published in " Second Book,"
again in " Later Work."
:x. Beatrice Cenci. 6J x z\ inches. Pencil and sepia
wash. First published in " Second Book,"
again in " Later Work."
Unless otherwise stated as above, the works in
this collection are unpublished ; all were executed
1889-90.

66

LATER WORK.
14. Francesca di Rimini (Dante). Head in profile, to left ;
pencil. First published in " Later Work."
15. Dante at the Court of Can Grande della Scala.
Circular design, in pencil. (Property of Miss H.
Glover.)
16. Dante in Exile. Dante seated on the left, the words
of the Sonnet inscribed on the right, with decorations
recalling some design of William Blake's. Signed
A.V.B. First published in "Later Work."
(Formerly the property of the late Hampden Gurney,
Esq.)
17. "I saw three Ships come sailing by on Christmas Day
in the Morning." Pencil. Designed as a Christmas
card for the late Rev. Alfred Gurney. Published in
"Later Work." c. 1 890-1.
18. Hail Mary. Profile of ahead to left. Pencil drawing,
4I x 5-^ inches. First published in The Studio,
May 1898, again in "Early Work." (Property of
Frederick H. Evans, Esq.) 1891.
19. Head, three-quarter face to right, with a Wreath of
Grapes and Vine Leaves and background of tree trunks.
Lead-pencil sketch 5^ x 5I inches. Unpublished.
(Property of John Lane, Esq.) circa 1891.
20. Thel gathering the Lily. Pen-and-ink with water-
colour wash. (Formerly the property of Robert Ross,
Esq.)
67

Aubrey Beardsley

2 1 . Two figures in a Garret, both seated, a woman harangu
ing a young man. Ink and wash sketch, 3 \ x 4 \ inches.
Published in " Early Work." (Property of Frederick
H. Evans, Esq.)
22. E. Burne-Jones. Portrait sketch in pen-and-ink, with
slight wash. A memorandum of Aubrey Beardsley's
first call on Sir Edward Burne-Jones, dated Sunday,
12th July 1891, and signed with monogram, A.V.B.
Size, 6| x 4J inches. Eight copies only. Printed
on India paper. Published by James Tregaskis,
Caxton Head, High Holborn, in 1899. July 1891.
23. The Witch of Atlas. Pen-and-ink and water-colour
wash. First reproduced (lacking ornamental border)
in " Second Book," again in " Later Work." (For
merly the property of Robert Ross, Esq.)
24. Moliere. Blue water-colour wash. First published in
" Later Work." (Formerly the property of Robert
Ross, Esq.)
25. Die GotterdAmmerung. Decorative composition in
white and Indian ink, influenced by Burne-Jones. First
published in " Second Book," again in " Later
Work." ( Formerly the property of Robert Ross, Esq.)
26. Soleil Couchant. Decorative composition in Indian
ink. (The motif of the central part was subsequently
adapted for a vignette in the "Morte Darthur,"
Book II. chap, xii.) First published in "Later
Work." (Formerly the property of the late Hampden
Gurney, Esq.)
68

Aubrey Beardsley

27. Tannhauser. Study for decorative composition, in Indian
ink. 5| x 7^ inches. First published in " Later
Work." (Property of Dr Rowland Thurnam.)
1891.
28. Withered Spring. Decorative composition in Indian
ink. Catalogued in " Fifty Drawings " as " Lament of
the Dying Year." (The motif of the central part was
subsequently adapted for a vignette in the " Morte
Darthur," Book I. chap, xii.) First published in
"Later Work." (Property of Dr Rowland
Thurnam. )
29. 1. Perseus. Pen-and-ink and light wash. Design
for an upright panel, with standing nude figure,
above it a frieze of smaller figures. 1 8 x 6f
inches. First published in "Early Work."
(Property of Frederick H. Evans, Esq.)
11. A pencil sketch of two figures, unfinished, on the
reverse of the preceding. Published in " Early
Work."
30. L'Abbe Mouret. Decorative design for frontispiece of
Zola's "La Faute de l'Abbe Mouret." Ink and
wash. First published in " Under the Hill." John
Lane. 1904. (Property of John Lane, Esq.)
31. Hamlet patris manem Sequitur. Pencil drawing.
Printed in red, as frontispiece to The Bee, the
Magazine of the Blackburn Technical School,
November 1891 ; reprinted, in black, in "Second
Book," again in " Early Work." Latter part 1891.
32. Perseus and the Monstre. Pencil design, $\ x 7J
inches. First appeared in illustration of an article
69

Aubrey Beardsley

entitled, "The Invention of Aubrey Beardsley," by
Aymer Vallance, in The Magazine of Art, May 1898 ;
again in " Early Work." (Property of Aymer
Vallance, Esq.) 1891.
33. The Procession of Jeanne d'Arc. Pencil outline,
treatment inspired by Mantegna, 19J long by 6 \ inches
high. First published in Magazine of Art, May
1 898 ; again as double page in " Second Book " ;
again, reduced, in collotype, in " Early Work." (Pro
perty of Frederick H. Evans, Esq.) 1891-2.
A pen-and-ink version of the Procession, 30 inches
long by 7 high, was made subsequently, about the
Spring of 1892, for Robert Ross, Esq. Published in
The Studio ; see below.
34. The Litany of Mary Magdalen. Pencil drawing.
First published in " Second Book," again in " Later
Work." (Formerly Property of More Adey, Esq.)
1892.
3 J. The Virgin and Lily. Madonna standing in front ofa
Renaissance niche and surrounded by Saints, among
them St John Baptist kneeling. Pencil outline.
Reproduced in photogravure in " Later Work."
(Formerly the property of the late Rev. Alfred
Gurney, afterwards in the possession of his son, the
late Hampden Gurney, Esq.)
36. Children Decorating a Terminal God. Pen-and-ink.
(Formerly the property of M. Puvis de Chavannes.)
37. Fred Brown, N.E.A.C. Pen-and-ink sketch of the
art-master in studio. Signed with monogram A.V.B.
70

Aubrey Beardsley

First published in " Under the Hill." (Property of
Miss Nellie Syrett.)
38. Study of Figures, horizontal fragment from, containing
five heads and parts of two more. Pencil. Published
in "Under the Hill." (Property of Miss Nellie
Syrett.)
39. Portrait of the Artist. Full face. Pen-and-ink.
First published in " Second Book," again in " Later
Work." (Presented by Robert Ross, Esq., to the
British Museum.)
40. Sidonia the Sorceress. A design to illustrate Meinhold's
Romance, representing Sidonia, not in religious habit,
with the demon-cat, Chim. William Morris's criticism
that the face of Sidonia was not pretty enough, and
another suggested improvement on the part of a friend
of Aubrey Beardsley's, induced him to try to better the
picture by altering the hair. The result was so far
from satisfactory that it is almost certain that the
drawing was destroyed by the artist. First half of
1892.
41. Le Debris d'un Poete. Pen-and-ink. First published
in " Aubrey Beardsley," by Arthur Symons (Sign of
the Unicorn, London, 1898). (Property of Andre
Raffalovich, Esq.)
42. Incipit Vita Nova. Chinese, white, and Indian ink
on brown paper. First published in " Second Book,"
again in " Later Work." (Property of Messrs Carfax
& Co.) 1892.
43. Head of an Angel, in profile, to left, flaming heart held
in left hand. Pencil, on a half-sheet of grey notepaper,
71

Aubrey Beardsley

signed with monogram A.V.B. 5f x 3^ inches.
First published in photogravure " Second Book,"
again in " Later Work " ; also printed in 4-inch
square form on card for private distribution, Christmas
1905. (Property of the artist's sister, Mrs George
Bealby Wright [Miss Mabel Beardsley].) c. 1892.
44. Adoramus Te. Four angels in a circle (7 inches
in diameter) playing musical instruments, pencil and
coloured chalks. Signed A.V.B. monogram. De
signed as a Christmas card for the late Rev. Alfred
Gurney. First published in photogravure in " Second
Book," again in " Later Work." (Property of Mrs
George Bealby Wright.)
45. A Christmas Carol. Two angels, one of them playing a
hand-organ, in a circle (7^ inches diameter), pencil and
coloured chalks. Designed as a Christmas card for the
late Rev. Alfred Gurney. First published in photo
gravure in " Second Book," again in " Later Work."
Also in photogravure, 3 inches diameter, for private
circulation. (Property of Mrs George Bealby Wright.)
Christmas, 1892.
46. La Femme Incomprise. Pen-and-ink and wash. First
published in the spring number of To-Day, 1895 ;
again in the Idler magazine, March 1897.
47. Sandro Botticelli, three-quarter face to left, pencil,
signed with monogram A.V.B. ; 14 x 7f inches; a
reconstruction of the Florentine painter's physiognomy
from his extant works, to illustrate Aubrey Beardsley's
theory that every artist tends to reproduce his own
physical type. Presented by the artist to Aymer
7*

Aubrey Beardsley

Vallance, Esq. First published in the Magazine of
Art, May 1898; afterwards in "Early Work."
c. 1892-3.
48. Raphael Sanzio. Full-length figure, three-quarter
face to left, a decorative panel in pen-and-ink, iof x 3^
inches, exclusive of border lines. Unpublished. (Pro
perty of Messrs Obach & Co.)
49. Cephalus and Procris. Pen-and-ink.
50. Small Bookmarker, woman undressing, a Turkish table
in the foreground. Pen-and-ink. First published in
"Second Book," again in "Later Work." (Pro
perty of Sir William Geary, Bart.) 1893.
51. Hermaphroditus, seated figure, pencil and pale colour
tints. Reproduced in colour in " Later Work."
(Property of Julian Sampson, Esq.)
52. L'apres-midi d'un Faune, par Mallarme ; four designs
extra-illustrating a copy of. One of them, a pen-and-
ink vignette of a faun, full face, signed with monogram
A. V.B., was published in " Second Book." The others
unpublished. 1893.
53. Decorative Sketch Design of a Sailing Ship. i% x ^\
inches. Pen-and-ink on white from the back of a
letter to Aymer Vallance, Esq. First published in
Magazine of Art, May 1898 ; again in " Early Work."
c. 1893.
54. Angel Playing Hand-Organ. Pen-and-ink and slight
wash, on pale grey notepaper, from a letter to Aymer
Vallance, Esq. First published in Magazine of Art,
May 1898 ; again in " Early Work." c. 1893.
73

Aubrey Beardsley

55. The Pall Mall Budget, 1893 and 1894.
1. Mr H. A. Jones and his Bauble ; pen-and-ink.
Feb. 2, 1893, p. 150.
11. The New Coinage. Four designs that were not
sent in for competition, p. 1 54. Another design,
embodying a caricature of Queen Victoria, was
suppressed.
hi. " Becket " at the Lyceum.
1. Mr Irving as Becket ; wash drawing. Feb.
9th, front page.
2. Master Leo, p. 188.
3. Queen Eleanor, p. 188.
,. Margery, p. 188.
s. The King makes a Move on the Board, p. 188.
6. Miss Terry (as Rosamond), p. 188.
7. Mr Gordon Craig, p. 190.
8. The Composer, p. 190.
iv. x. The Disappointment of Emile Zola, p. 202.
2. Emile Zola ; a portrait, p. 204.
(Republished in "Pall Mall Pictures of the
Year," 1893, and in Tbe Studio, June 1893.)
v. Verdi's " Falstaff," at Milan, Feb. 16th.
Initial letter V ; pen-and-ink, p. 236.
Portrait of Verdi ; ink and wash, p. 236.
vi. Pope Leo XIII.'s Jubilee, Feb. 23rd.
The Pilgrim (old style), p. 270.
The Pilgrim (new style), p. 270.
vn. The Reappearance of Mrs Bancroft.
¦ Mr Arthur Cecil (Baron Stein), p. 281.
0. Mrs Bancroft (Lady Fairfax), p. 281.
s. Mr Forbes Robertson (Julian Beauclere),p. 281.
4. Mr Bancroft (Count OrlofF), p. 281.
74

Aubrey Beardsley

viii. Caricature of a Golf Player, in classical helmet,
March 9th, p. 376.
ix. Orpheus at the Lyceum, March 16th.
.. One of the Spirits, Act II., p. 395.
=. Orpheus (Miss Clara Butt), p. 395.
3. A Visitor at the Rehearsal, p. 395.
4. Some Dresses in the Chorus, p. 395.
x. Portrait of the late Jules Ferry : wash draw
ing, March 23rd, p. 435.
xi. Bullet-Proof Uniform : Tommy Atkins thinks
it rather fun, March 30, p. 49 1 .
xn. Mr Frederick Harrison's " Ideal Novelist,"
April 20, p. 620.
xm. A New Year's Dream, after studying Mr Pennell's
"Devils of Notre Dame." Republished in
" Early Work." Jan. 4th, 1894, p. 8.
56. Mr Parnell, sketch portrait of the Irish party leader,
head and shoulders, three quarters face to left, pencil,
half tone reproduction, 4f x 3^ inches.
57. 1. The Studio. Design for wrapper in two states, the
original design containing a seated figure of Pan,
omitted in the later version. First state on brown
paper. The same, reduced, in black on green, for
prospectus, republished in The Studio, May 1898, and
again in " Early Work."
Second state, black on green, also in gold on rough
white paper for presentation to Royalty (Nov. 15th,
1893). The same, reduced, and printed in dark
green on white, for a prospectus, republished in " Early
Work." The same, enlarged and printed in black
on light green, for a poster.
75

Aubrey Beardsley

The Studio, No. i, April 1893, accompanying an
article entitled "A New Illustrator: Aubrey Beardsley,"
by Joseph Pennell, contained : —
11. Reduced reproduction of the pen-and-ink replica
of Jeanne d'Arc procession. Republished as
large folding supplement in No. 2.
111. Siegfried, Act II., from the original drawing in line
and wash, signed A.V.B., presented by the artist
to Sir Edward Burne-Jones, after whose death
it was given back by Lady Burne-Jones, to the
artist's mother, Mrs Beardsley. Republished
in "Early Work."
iv. The Birthday of Madame Cigale, line and wash,
15 inches long by 9 \ inches high, influenced
by Japanese models. Reproduced in " Early
Work." (Property of Charles Holme, Esq.)
v. Les Revenants de Musique, line and wash. Re
produced in "Early Work." (Property of
Charles Holme, Esq.)
vi. Salome with the head of St John the Baptist. Up
right panel in Chinese ink on white, io£ by 5J
inches, exclusive of framing lines. This was the
first design suggested to the artist by Oscar
Wilde's French play of " Salome." It differs
from the later version of the same subject in being
richer and more complex. It contains the legend,
omitted in the later version, j'ai baise ta bouche
Iokanaan, j' ai baise ta bouche. The treatment is
obviously influenced by Japanese work, and also
by that of the French Symboliste school,
e.g. Carlos Schwabe. Republished in " Early
Work." Subsequently to its appearance in The
76

Aubrey Beardsley

Studio, the artist experimentally tinted it with
green colour washes. In its final state it has
not been published. (Formerly the property of
Mrs Ernest Leverson, now of Miss K. Doulton.)
vii. Reduced reproduction of the second version of the
Jeanne d'Arc procession. The same appeared,
full size, as a folding plate supplement, in No.
2 of The Studio, May 1893.
In the first number of The Studio (April) also
were published, by anticipation, four designs from
the "Morte Darthur," due to begin its serial
appearance in the following June, viz. : —
viii. Initial letter I.
ix. Merlin taketh the child Arthur into his keeping
(full page, including border).
x. Ornamental border for full page.
xi. Frieze for chapter-heading ; six men fighting,
on foot, three of them panoplied. Reproduced
in Magazine of Art, November 1896, "Fifty
Drawings," Idler, March 1897, and St Paul's,
April 9th, 1898. The original drawing is 13!
inches long by 4J inches. As may be seen,
even in the reduced reproduction, one inch at
either end was added by the artist at the request
of his publisher, so as to increase the proportionate
length of the ornament. Subsequently Mr
Frederick H. Evans photographed the drawing,
full size, and produced fifteen platinotype copies,
of which twelve dnly were for sale, and the
plate destroyed.
58. Design of Dandelions, for publishers' trade mark for
Dent & Co.

77

Aubrey Beardsley

59. Le Morte Darthur, by Sir Thomas Malory. J. M.
Dent & Co. 300 copies on Dutch hand-made paper
and 1 500 ordinary copies. Issued in Parts, beginning
June 1893.
1. Vol. I., 1893. Frontispiece — "How King
Arthur saw the Questing Beast, and thereof
had great marvel." Photogravure.
Full-page illustrations : —
11. Merlin taketh the child Arthur into his keeping.
(Reduced reproduction in Idler, May 1898.)
m. The Lady of the Lake telleth Arthur of the
sword Excalibur.
iv. Merlin and Nimue.
v. Arthur and the strange mantle.
vi. How four queens found Launcelot sleeping.
(Property of A. E. Gallatin, Esq.)
vii. Sir Launcelot and the witch Helkwes. (Property
of A. E. Gallatin, Esq.)
viii. How la Beale Isoud nursed Sir Tristram.
ix. How Sir Tristram drank the love drink.
x. How la Beale Isoud wrote to Sir Tristram.
xi. How King Mark found Sir Tristram sleeping.
xn. How Morgan le Fay gave a sword to Sir
Tristram.
xm. Vol. II., 1894. Frontispiece — " The achieving of
the Sangreal." Photogravure. (This was the
first design executed for the work.)
Full page and double page illustrations : —
xiv. How King Mark and Sir Dinadan heard Sir
Palomides making great sorrow and mourning
for la Beale Isoud (double page).
xv. La Beale Isoud at Joyous Gard (double page).
78

Aubrey Beardsley

xvi. How Sir Launcelot was known by Dame Elaine
(full page).
xvii. How a devil in woman's likeness would have
tempted Sir Bors (double page).
xviii. How Queen Guenever rode on maying (double
page).
xix. How Sir Bedivere cast the sword Excalibur into
the water (full page).
xx. How Queen Guenever made her a nun (full page).
In the two volumes there are altogether 548
ornaments, chapter-headings, borders, initials,
tail-pieces, etc. ; but some of them are repeti
tions of the same design, others reproductions
of the same design in two different sizes.
(Two of these are in the Victoria and Albert
Museum. Eight belong to Pickford Waller,
Esq. Others are the property of Hon. Gerald
Ponsonby, R. C. Greenleaf, Esq., W. H.
Jessop, Esq., M. H. Sands, Esq., Robert Ross,
Esq., and Messrs Carfax & Co. )
xxi. Chapter-heading, a dragon, with conventional foli
age spray branching into marginal ornaments ;
printed, but not published in the book.
xxn. Initial letter J with guardian griffins ; pen-and-ink,
Si x ih inches.
xxiii. Unfinished border design, first published in
" Whistler's Art Dicta and Other Essays " by
A. E. Gallatin (Boston, U.S.A., and London,
1903). (Property of A. E. Gallatin, Esq.)
xxiv. Original study, approved by the publisher,
for wrappers of serial issue of the " Morte
Darthur," yellowish green water-colour on
79

Aubrey Beardsley

white paper, io-J x 8£ inches. This design,
comprising lilies, differs from that which was
finally produced by the artist and published
(next item). (Property of Aymer Vallance,
Esq.) 1893.
Design for wrappers of serial issue, in black on grey
paper, in two states, the earlier or trial-state,
having blank spaces for the lettering, only the
title being given as " La Mort Darthure."
xxv. Design in gold on cream-white cloth cases of
the bound volumes.
Nineteen of the above designs were republished in
" A Book of Fifty Drawings," and again in
" Later Work," including full-size reproductions
of the following, which had suffered through
excessive reduction in the published " Morte
Darthur."
xxvi. Merlin (in a circle), facing list of illustrations
in Vol. I. The same reproduced in Tbe
Idler, March 1897.
xxvii. Vignette of Book I., chapter xiv. Landscape
with piper in a meadow and another figure in
the sky.
xxviii. Vignette of Book III., chapter iii. Three swans
swimming.
xxix. Vignette of Book V., chapter x. Nude woman
rising out of the sea, holding in one hand
a sword, in the other a rose.
60. Pall Mall Magazine, June 1893.
1. Of a Neophyte, and how the Black Art was re
vealed unto him by the Fiend Asomuel. Full-
80

Aubrey Beardsley

page illustration in pen and ink. Asomuel, mean
ing insomnia, was a neologism of the artist's own
devising, made up of the Greek alpha privative,
the Latin somnus, and the Hebrew el, for
termination analogous to that of other spirits'
names, such as Gabriel, Raphael, Azrael, etc.,
reproduced in "Early Work," July 1893.
11. The Kiss of Judas. Full-page illustration in pen-
and-ink. Reproduced in "Early Work."
61. La Comedie aux Enfers, pen and ink, published in
"Modern Illustration," by Joseph Pennell. (G.
Bell & Sons, 1895.) Imp. i6mo. 1893.
62. 1. Evelina, by Frances Burney. (Dent & Co.,
1894.) Design in outline for title-page.
11. Evelina and her Guardian, design for illustration,
. pen and ink and wash, 6| x 4-^ (exclusive of
marginal lines), not published.
in. Another illustration for the same,"Love for Love,"
a wash drawing, 7^ x 5J, unpublished. 1893.
63. Virgilius the Sorcerer. David Nutt, 1893. Frontis
piece to the large paper copies only. Reproduced in
« Early Work."
64. The Landslip, frontispiece to "Pastor Sang," being
William Wilson's translation of Bjornson's drama,
" Over iEvne." Longmans & Co., 1 893. A black
and white design, in conscious imitation of Albert
Diirer, as the peculiar form of the signature A. B.
shows, the only occasion on which the artist employed
this device. Reproduced in " Early Work." (Pro
perty of Messrs Shirley & Co., Paris.)
F 8l

Aubrey Beardsley

65. Bon Mots. 3 Volumes. Dent & Co., 1893.
1. Title-page reproduced in " Later Work."
11. Figure with fool's bauble, and another small orna
ment for the cover.
111. 208 grotesques and other ornaments in the three
volumes. Some of these, however, are repeated,
and some printed in different sizes. Three of
them reproduced in " Later Work." In an
article by Max Beerbohm in the Idler, May
1 898, accompanied by " some drawings that
have never before been reproduced," are nine
small vignettes of the " Bon Mots " type, of
which number three only are explicitly ascribed
to "Bon Mots." (A sheet of them belongs
to W. H. Jessop, Esq. Nineteen are the
property of Pickford Waller, Esq. )
66. Folly, intended for "Bon Mots," but not used in the
book. The figure is walking along a branch of haw
thorn, the left hand upraised, and holding the fool's
baton ; a flight of butterflies in lower left-hand corner ;
with drawing 8 x $\ inches. (Property of Littleton
Hay, Esq.)
67. Pagan Papers, a volume of Essays by Kenneth Grahame.
Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1893. Title-page,
design for.
68. Ada Lundberg, head and shoulders to right, coloured
crayons on brown paper. Reproduced in colour in
" Later Work." (Property of Julian Sampson, Esq.)
69. Keynotes Series of Novels and Short Stories. —
(The publication of this series was begun by Messrs
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Aubrey Beardsley

Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and afterwards con
tinued by Mr John Lane alone.)
i. Keynotes by George Egerton, 1893. Title-page
design (the same employed for the cloth cover).
Ornamental key, embodying the author's mono
gram, on back of "Contents" page (the same
device on the back of the book). This plan
was adopted for each volume of the series.
11. The Dancing Faun, by Florence Farr (the Faun
in the design has the eyeglass and features of
J. M'Neill Whistler).
in. Poor Folk. Translated from the Russian of
F. Dostoievsky, by Lena Milman.
iv. A Child of the Age, by Francis Adams.
v. The Great God Pan and the Inmost Light, by
Arthur Machen, also unfinished sketch in pencil
upon the back of the finished design.
vi. Discords, by George Egerton.
vii. Prince Zaleski, by M. P. Shiel.
viii. The Woman who Did, by Grant Allen.
ix. Women's Tragedies, by H. D. Lowry, 1895.
x. Grey Roses, by Henry Harland.
xi. At the First Corner, and other Stories, by
H. B. Marriott Watson.
xn. Monochromes, by Ella D'Arcy.
xm. At the Relton Arms, by Evelyn Sharp.
xiv. The Girl from the Farm, by Gertrude Dix.
xv. The Mirror of Music, by Stanley V. Makower.
xvi. Yellow and White, by W. Carlton Dawe.
xvii. The Mountain Lovers, by Fiona Macleod.
xviii. The Woman who Didn't, by Victoria Crosse.
xix. Nobody's Fault, by Netta Syrett.
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Aubrey Beardsley

xx. The Three Impostors, by Arthur Machen.
xxi. The British Barbarians, a hill-top novel, by
Grant Allen.
xxn. Platonic Affections, by John Smith.
Design for wrapper of " Keynotes " series. John
Lane, 1896.
(With the exception of No. 2 all the aboveKeynotes
designs are the property of John Lane, Esq.)
70. The Barbarous Britishers, a tip-top novel, by H. D.
Traill. Title-page design (the same employed for the
cloth cover), comprising a portrait of Miss Ada Lund
berg, the whole being a parody of the design for " The
British Barbarians," vide supra. John Lane, 1896.
(Property of John Lane, Esq.) Reproduced in " Early
Work."
7 1 . Three Headpieces, two of which appeared in St PauFs,
April 2nd, 1898, the other in the same paper, April
9th, 1898. All three republished in "Early Work."
(Property of Henry Reichardt, Esq.) 1893-4.
72. Women regarding a Dead Mouse. Three-quarter
figure in leaden grey. Unfinished painting in oils, the
only experiment the artist ever made in this medium ;
influenced by Walter Sicker t. c. 1894.
73. Menu of the Tenth Annual Dinner of the Play
goers' Club in London. Two drawings, one of them
only reproduced in " Early Work." January 28th,
1894.
74. Lucian's True History. Laurence & Bullen, privately
printed, 1894. Black and white illustrations to
i. A Snare of Vintage. Reproduced in " Later
Work."
84

Aubrey Beardsley

Another drawing of the same subject and title, but
different rendering, 6 x 4J inches, was inserted loose in
large paper copies only ; not noted in " Contents " page
of the book.
11. Dreams. Reproduced in " Later Work." This
drawing was executed obviously at the same
period as "Siegfried" and "The Achieving
of the Sangreal."
in., iv. Two more drawings, intended for the same work,
but not included in it. Twenty copies of each
were printed privately. One of them is un
published ; of the other, the upper portion was
published in " Later Work." These illustra
tions were the earliest of the Artist's designs
not intended for public circulation.
Lucian's True History, translated by Francia
Hickes, illustrated by William Strang, J. B. Clark, and
Aubrey Beardsley, with an Introduction by Charles
Whibley, was published by A. H. Bullen. London, 1902.
75. Quilp's Baron Verdigris. Black and white. Designed
for Messrs Henry & Co. First published in " Second
Book " and again in " Later Work." 1 894.
76. Poster for " The Comedy of Sighs," by Dr John
Todhunter, at the Avenue Theatre, March 29th, 1894.
Three-quarter length 'figure of woman in deep blue,
standing behind a gauze curtain with light green round
spots powdered over it, 2 8f x 4-f inches. The same
has since been printed, the original size, in black and
white. The same reduced, and printed in blue on
light green paper for the programme sold in the theatre :
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Aubrey Beardsley

also printed in black on toned paper for the programme
of Mr G. Bernard Shaw's play, " Arms and the Man,"
April 2i8t, 1894. Also still further reduced, in black
on pale mauve-pink paper for the wrapper of Mr
W. B. Yeats's play, " The Land of Hearts* Desire."
Reproduced in Idler magazine, March 1897 ; again in
" Fifty Drawings," also in " Later Work." This was
Aubrey Beardsley's first poster design. 1894.
77. Poster for Mr Fisher Unwin's "Pseudonym
Library." Female figure in salmon-pink dress stand
ing on the opposite side of the road to a second-hand
book-store. The scheme of colouring — salmon-pink,
orange, green, and black — was suggested to Aubrey
Beardsley by a French poster. 29 \ x 13 inches.
The same reduced, in colours, to form an advertise
ment slip for insertion in books and magazines.
The same reduced, printed in black, 6 copies only,
on Japanese vellum. Reproduced in " Fifty Draw
ings " and " Later Work." Also used as cover-design
for the " Dream and the Business," by John Oliver
Hobbes. Similar motif, black and white drawing ; exhibited
at the New English Art Club Exhibition at the New
Gallery. (Property of T. Fipher Unwin, Esq.)
78. Poster for Mr Fisher Unwin's Children's Books.
Woman reading while seated in a groaning-chair ; black
and purple. Reproduced in black in " Fifty Draw
ings " and " Later Work."
79. Poster Design. A lady and large sunflower, scheme
of colouring purple and yellow. Unpublished. Pur-
86

Aubrey Beardsley

chased by Mr Fisher Unwin and destroyed accidentally
in New York.
80. Sketch Portrait of the Artist, head and shoulders,
three-quarter face to left ; in imaginary costume with
V-shaped opening to his coat and high-shouldered
sleeves ; in charcoal. First published in The Sketch,
April 14th, 1894, again in " Early Work."
81. Sketch Portrait of Henry Harland, head and
shoulders, three-quarter face to right, in charcoal.
First published in The Sketch, April nth, 1894, again
in " Early Work." (Property of John Lane, Esq.)
82. Portrait of James M'Neill Whistler. (Property of
Walter Sickert, Esq.)
83. The Fat Woman (a caricature of Mrs Whistler).
First published in To-Day, May 12th, 1894, afterwards
republished in " Fifty Drawings " and " Later Work " ;
also in Le Courrier Francois, November iith, 1894,
with the title " Une Femme bien Nourrie." (Formerly
the property of the late Mrs Cyril Martineau (Miss K.
Savile Clarke)).
84. Waiting, a haggard, expectant woman, wearing
V-necked bodice and large black hat, seated in a
restaurant, with a half-emptied wine-glass on a small
round table before her ; black-ink drawing, 7§ x 3J
inches, unpublished. (Property of Pickford Waller,
Esq.)
85. Masked Pierrot and Female Figure, water and
gondolas in background, small square in black and
white, published in To-Day, May 12th, 1894.
87

Aubrey Beardsley

86. Salome, A tragedy in one act. Translated by Lord
Alfred Douglas from the French of Oscar Wilde.
Elkin Mathews and John Lane, 1894. Pictured with
the following designs by Aubrey Beardsley : —
1. The woman (or man) in the moon (Frontis
piece) .
Border Design for Title-page (two states, the first
cancelled). Property of John Lane, Esq.)
Border Design for List of Pictures. (Property
of John Lane, Esq.)
11. The Peacock Skirt. (Property of John Lane,
Esq.)
in. The Black Cape. A burlesque, substituted for a
drawing of John and Salome, which was printed
but withheld, and subsequently published in
"Early Work." (Property of John Lane,
Esq.)
iv. A Platonic Lament. (Property of John Lane,
Esq.)
v. Enter Herodias (two states, the first cancelled).
(The drawing in its original state the property
of Herbert J. Pollit Esq.) A proof of this
drawing in its first state, now the property of
Frank Harris, Esq., is inscribed by the artist on
the left-hand top corner :
" Because one figure was undressed
This little drawing was suppressed.
It was unkind, but never mind,
Perhaps it all was for the best."
vi. The Eyes of Herod. (Note one of Herod's
white peacocks.) (Property of John Lane,
Esq.)
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Aubrey Beardsley

vii. The Stomach Dance. (The author makes
Salome dance, barefooted, the Dance of the
Seven Veils. ) (Property of John Lane, Esq. )
rm. The Toilette of Salome. Substituted for a
former drawing of the same subject, printed in
two states but withheld, the second state subse
quently published in " Early Work " (Property
of Robert Ross, Esq.)
ix. The Dancer's Reward. (Property of John Lane,
Esq-)
x. The Climax. This is a revised and simpler
version of the design which had appeared in the
first number of The Studio.
Tailpiece. The corpse of Salome being coffined
in a puff-powder box. (Property of John
Lane, Esq.)
Nos. i., iv., v., and vi. of the above contain
caricatures of Oscar Wilde.
xi. Small design, printed in gold on cloth, front cover
of "Salome"; another, consisting of an elabora
tion of the artist's device, for the under side of
cover.
xn. Study of a design of peacock feathers for cover of
" Salome," not used at the time, but sub
sequently reproduced for the first time in
facsimile in " Early Work," and again as an
illustration following the title-page in reissue
of " Salome " (John Lane, 1907) ; also in gold
on light green cloth for ornament of the binding,
and in olive green on orange-red for the paper
cap. Also in gold on blue cloth for binding
of "Under the Hill," 1904. (Property of
«9

Aubrey Beardsley

John Lane, Esq.) This (1907) edition, more
over, contains the two illustrations suppressed
in the original edition, viz., " John and Salome "
(Property of John Lane, Esq.), now placed
in order as No. 8, and " The Toilet of Salome,
II.," now placed as No. 13 (Property of
John Lane, Esq.) and an original title-page.
xm. The Salome drawings were reproduced the actual
size of the originals and published in a portfolio.
In this was included a design of Salome seated
upon a settee. Described in " Early Work " as
" Maitresse d'Orchestre." (John Lane, 1907.)
87. Dancer with Domino. (The property of His Honour
Judge Evans.)
88. Plays, by John Davidson. Elkin Mathews and John
Lane, 1894. Design on frontispiece to, containing
portrait caricatures of Sir Augustus Harris, and
Oscar Wilde and Henry Harland, black and white ;
the same design in gold on the cloth cover. Re
produced in " Early Work," and again, with Aubrey
Beardsley's letter to the Daily Chronicle on the subject,
in "Under the Hill," 1904. (Property of John
Lane, Esq.)
Design for Title-Page of the above-named. Black
and white ; reproduced in " Early Work."
89. The Yellow Book, 1894 and 1895.
1. Design for prospectus of the " Yellow Book " : a
woman examining books in a box at a bookstall ;
black on yellow paper. Elkin Mathew6 and
John Lane, 1894. (Property of John Lane,
Esq.)
90

Aubrey Beardsley

Vol. I., April 1894. Elkin Mathews and John
Lane.
11. Design on front side of yellow cover. (Property
of John Lane, Esq.)
hi. Design on under side of cover ; the same repeated
in the later volumes. (Property of John Lane,
Esq.)
iv. Design on title-page: a woman playing a piano in a
meadow. Reproduced, with Aubrey Beardsley's
letter on the subject, to the Pall Mall Budget,
in "Under the Hill" (1904). (Property of
John Lane, Esq.)
v. L'Education Sentimentale : in line and wash.
vi. Night Piece.
vii. Portrait of Mrs Patrick Campbell in profile, to left
in outline. Formerly in possession of Oscar
Wilde, now in National Gallery at Berlin.
viii. Bookplate (designed in 1893) for John Lumsden
Propert, Esq.
Vol. II., July 1894. Elkin Mathews and John
Lane.
ix. Design on front side of cover. (Property of John
Lane, Esq.)
x. Design on title-page.
xi. The Comedy-Ballet of Marionettes. Three designs.
xn. Garcons de Cafe. (Property of A. W. King, Esq.)
xiii. The Slippers of Cinderella. The artist subsequently
coloured the original with scarlet and green,
in which state it is unpublished. (Property of
Brandon Thomas, Esq.)
91

Aubrey Beardsley

xiv. Portrait of Madame Rejane, full-length profile to
left, in outline. (Property of Frederick H.
Evans, Esq.)
Volume III., October 1894. John Lane.
xv. Design on front side of cover. (Property of John
Lane, Esq.)
xvi. Design on title-page.
xvii. Portrait of Mantegna. Published, for a practical
joke, in the name of Philip Broughton. (Pro
perty of G. Bernard Shaw, Esq.)
xviii. Portrait of the artist ; fancy portrait of himself in
bed. (Property of John Lane, Esq.)
xix. Lady Gold's Escort. (Property of Brandon
Thomas, Esq.)
xx. The Wagnerites at the performance of " Tristan
und Isolde." Reproduced, on large scale, in Le
Courrier Francois, December 23rd, 1894, with
the title " Wagneriens et Wagneriennes."
xxi. La Dame aux Camelias. Reprinted in St PauFs,
April 2nd, 1894, with the title "Girl at her
Toilet." (Formerly the property of the late
Miss K. Savile Clarke [Mrs Cyril Martineau].)
xxn. From a pastel ; half-length study of a woman in
white cap, facing to left. (Published, for a
practical joke, in the name of Albert Foschter.)
Volume IV., January 1895. John Lane.
xxiii. Design on front side of cover.
xxiv. Design on title-page.
92

Aubrey Beardsley

9°

xxv. The Mysterious Rose Garden, burlesque Annun
ciation. (Property of John Lane, Esq.)
xxvi. The Repentance of Mrs  (The kneeling
figure is a reminiscence of the principal one in
"The Litany of Mary Magdalen.")
xxvn. Portrait of Miss Winifred Emery (outline).
(Property of Mrs Cyril Maude.)
xxvin. Frontispiece for Juvenal. Double-page supple
ment.
xxix. Design for "Yellow Book" Cover, not used.
First published in « Early Work." (Property
of John Lane, Esq.)
xxx. Show-card to advertise "The Yellow Book";
female figure standing, her hat hanging from
her right hand, and daffodils growing at her
feet. Dark green on light yellow paper.
Reproduced in black-and-white in "Early
Work." (The property of John Lane, Esq.)
Portrait of Rejane wearing a broad-brimmed hat
with dark bow in front, head and shoulders, full face
slightly to left, wash drawing. Reproduced by Swan
Electric Engraving Company for the « Yellow Book,
but not used. Unpublished.
Reiane, black-and-white design of the actress standing,
ha f length, fan in hand, against a white curtain with
conspicuous tassel. First published in << Second Book
and again, in a reduced state, as « Title-page ornament,
hitrl unpublished" in "Early Work." 1893-4-
93

Aubrey Beardsley

92. Madame Rejane, full-length portrait sketch, ink and
wash. First published in " Second Book," again in
" Later Work."
93. Madame Rejane, profile to left ; sitting, legs ex
tended, on a sofa, ink and wash. First published
in " Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen," by
Joseph Pennell (Macmillan, 1894), again in "Fifty
Drawings," and in the Idler Magazine, March 1897.
94. Rejane, portrait head in profile to left, in red crayon
and black ink, 7| x 6 inches. First published in
facsimile in The Studio, May 1 898, again in " Later
Work." (Property of Frederick H. Evans, Esq.)
1894.
95. A Poster Design. Back view ofa woman, her face in
profile to right, holding a pigmy in her right hand.
First published in " Early Work." (Property of
John Lane, Esq.)
96. A Poster Design (Singer). Woman seated at a piano.
First reproduced in The Poster, October 1898,
again in " Second Book " and in " Later Work."
97. Lady to right gazing at a Hat on a Milliner's
Bonnet Stand, headpiece for the " Idlers' Club "
section in the Idler Magazine, 1894.
98. Pierrot and Black Cat, small square in black-and-
white for a book ornament.
99. Head and Shoulders of a Chinese Priest, together
with the Head of a Satyr. 2 5 copies only printed on
folio sheet, and 10 copies only in red. It is not known
94

Aubrey Beardsley

for what they were intended. Published by James
Tregaskis, Caxton Head.
100 Les Passades, night scene, in pen-and-ink with ink
wash, 10x5 inches. First published in To-Day,
November 17, 1894, again in the Idler Magazine,
March 1897.
1 01. Venus between Terminal Gods. Frontispiece for a
version of the Tannhauser legend, to be published by
Messrs H. Henry & Co. Ltd., a project never completed.
Design in black-and-white, showing, especially in the
treatment of flying dove and of the background of rose-
trellis, the influence of Charles Ricketts or Laurence
Housman. Reproduced in " Second Book," and again
in "Later Work." Circa 1894-5.
102. FrontispieceandTitle-page, together forming one com
plete design, for " The Story of Venus and Tannhauser,"
to be published by John Lane, but never completed. ( Cf.
" Under the Hill " in The Savoy, 1896.) Reproduced
in " Early Work." Dated 1895. (Property of John
Lane, Esq.)
103. The Return of Tannhauser to Venusberg. A design
originally intended for the above-named book. Sub
sequently presented by the artist to J. M. Dent, Esq.
First published, in illustration of an article by Max
Beerbohm, in the Idler Magazine for May 1898, and
again, in larger format and, as the initials in left hand
corner show, reversed, in "Second Book" and again
in "Later Work." The Idler version has a slight
effect of half-tone in the brambles in the foreground,
but the " Later Work " reproduction is pure black-and-
white contrast.
95

Aubrey Beardsley

104. Venus. Design for title-page, in black-and-white. First
published in The Studio, 1 898, and afterwards in " Early
Work," March 2, 1899, where it is described as
" hitherto unpublished." (The property of John Lane,
Esq.)
105. Design for Cover of "The Cambridge A, B, C."
Reproduced in " Early Work."
106. Pierrot as Caddie, Golf Club Card, designed for the
opening of The Prince's Ladies' Golf Club, Mitcham,
pen-and-ink. Published in " Early Work." (For
merly the property of Mrs Falconer-Stuart, now of
R. Hippesley Cox, Esq.) Dated 1894.
107. A Poster Design ; two female figures drawn in black-
and-white for Mr William Heinemann. Reproduced
in " Early Work."
108. The London Garland, published by the Society of
Illustrators, 1895. A pen-and-ink drawing of a female
figure in very elaborated dress reaching from her neck
to the ground, intended to represent a ballet-dancer
with a costume as prescribed by Mrs Grundy. The
original drawing, unfinished, contains another figure, not
reproduced, on the left. The original title for this
drawing was "At a Distance." Reproduced in
"Second Book." (Property of Joseph Pennell, Esq.)
109. Autumn. Design in black-and-white for a calendar
to be published by William Heinemann. Reproduced
in " Early Work."
1 10. Tales of Mystery and Wonder, by Edgar AJlen Poe
96

Aubrey Beardsley

(Stone & Kimball, Chicago, U.S.A., 1895); four
designs in pen-and-ink for large paper edition of —
1. The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
11. The Black Cat.
hi. The Masque of the Red Death. First published
in the "Chap Book" (Chicago), Aug. 15,
1894, again in same, April I, 1898.
iv. The Fall of the House of Usher.
m. Outline Portrait of the Artist in profile to left;
in imaginary costume, with a lace ruff to the neck, and
earrings in the ears. Published in " Posters in Minia
ture," and again in " Early Work." A half-tone block
from variant of the same, the earring as well as the
button on lappel and waist of coat more pronounced,
was published in The Hour, March 27, 1895, an(^
reproduced in Magazine of Art, November 1896.
112. A Child Standing by its Mother's Bed, black-and-
white, chiefly outline. First published in The Sketch, April
10,1895. Reproduced in "Early Work." Formerly
in the possession of Max Beerbohm, Esq., but since lost.
113. The Scarlet Pastorale, pen-and-ink. First published
in The Sketch, April 10, 1895. Also printed in scarlet
on white. Reproduced in " Fifty Drawings."
1 14. Portrait of Miss Ethel Devereux, pencil drawing.
(Property of Mrs Roy Devereux.) Circa 1895.
115. Design for an Invitation Card, ink outline; seated
Pierrot smoking, a copy of the " Yellow Book," Vol.
IV., on the couch at his side. Drawn for Mr John
Lane's Sette of Odd Volumes Smoke. Reproduced
in The Studio, September 1895. (Property of John
Lane, Esq.)
G 97

Aubrey Beardsley

1 1 6. Three Decorative Designs from the brown paper
cover of Aubrey Beardsley's own copy of " Tristan und
Isolde." Two reproduced in " Later Work." (Pro
perty of Frederick H. Evans, Esq.)
117. Max Alvary as "Tristan" in Wagner's opera
" Tristan und Isolde," half-length profile to left, pen-
and-ink and wash with unusual monogram signature.
10x5! inches. First published in " Aubrey Beardsley's
Drawings, a catalogue and a list of criticisms," by
A. E. Gallatin (New York, 1903). (Formerly the
property of Rev. G. H. Palmer, now of A, E.
Gallatin, Esq.)
118. Frau Klafsky as "Isolde" in above-named opera,
pen-and-ink and pale green water-colour, 13x4-! inches.
First published in the Critic (New York), December,
1902. (Formerly the property of Rev. G. H. Palmer,
now of A. E. Gallatin, Esq.)
119. Isolde ; autolithograph in scarlet, grey, green, and black
on white ; supplement to The Studio, October 1895.
120. Woman reclining in a Meadow by the Border of a
Lake, listening to a Faun reading out of a Book
to Her. Oblong design in ink on white ; a variant of
the design for wrapper of Leonard Smithers' Catalogue,
No. 3. First published in The Studio, May 1898,
again in " Early Work," where it is described as
"hitherto unpublished." (Property of John Lane,
Esq.) 1895.
121. Design for Wrapper of "Catalogue of Rare
Books," No. 3. (Leonard Smithers, September 1895.)
The same figures as in the last-named, but the landscape
98

Aubrey Beardsley

has an urn and additional trees to adapt the design to
upright shape. Black on pale blue-green paper.
122. Chopin Ballade III., illustration for. Woman rider,
mounted on a prancing white horse to left. Wash
drawing. First published in The Studio, May 1898,
in half tones of grey, with deep purplish black ; again
in " Second Book." (Property of Charles Holme,
Esq.) 1895.
123. Chopin's Nocturnes, frontispiece to. Pen-and-ink and
wash. First published in "Early Work." (Pro
perty of John Lane, Esq.)
124. Earl Lavender, by John Davidson (Ward & Downey,
1895), design for frontispiece to. Woman scourging a
kneeling, barebacked figure. Pen-and-ink outline. Re
produced in " Early Work." (Property of John Lane,
Esq.)
125. Young Ofeg's Ditties, by George Egerton (John
Lane, 1895), title-page and cover design for.
126. Messalina, with another woman on her left, black-and-
white, with black background. First published in
" Second Book," again in " Early Work," where it
is described as "hitherto unpublished." 1895.
127. Title-page Ornament, standing nude figure playing
double-bass, black background. First published in
« Early Work."
128. Portrait of Miss Letty Lind in "The Artist's
Model." Pen-and-ink outline. Published in " Early
Work." (Property of Miss Letty Lind.)
99

Aubrey Beardsley

129. Atalanta in Calydon, full-length figure to right ; pen-
and-ink and wash. First published in " Early Work."
(Property of John Lane, Esq.)
130. Cover Design for Fairy Tales by Count Hamilton,
to be published by Messrs H. Henry & Co., Ltd.
131. Balzac's " La Comedie Humaine," design (head, full
face) for front side and another for the reverse of cover.
Reproduced in " Later Work."
132. The Brook Trills of Pernicious by Richard le Philis-
tienne, title-page to burlesque, that of " The Book Bills
of Narcissus," by Richard le Gallienne. Unpublished.
(Property of J. M. Dent, Esq.)
133. A Self-Portrait, grotesque outline profile to left, with
diminutive silk hat, from the fly-leaf of an envelope in
the possession of J. M. Dent, Esq. Unpublished.
134. The Shaving of Shagpat, by George Meredith, small
sketch to illustrate, in pen-and-ink, contained in a letter
to Frederick H. Evans, Esq. Unpublished.
135. An Evil Motherhood, by Walt Ruding (Elkin
Mathews, 1896), frontispiece to. Pen-and-ink. Re
produced in " Early Work."
136. Cafe Noir. Another design for the frontispiece
of the last-named book, pen-and-ink and wash ;
bound up in six review copies only, and then recalled.
Reproduced in " Early Work." (Property of M. Jean
Ruelle.)
137. Title-page, an architectonic design. First published
as the title of "Early Work" (John Lane, 1899).
(Property of John Lane, Esq.)
IOO

Aubrey Beardsley

138. Ornamental Title-page for " The Parade." Messrs
H. Henry & Co., Ltd., 1896. Reproduced in
"Later Work."
139. Tail-piece to Catalogue of Lord Carnarvon's Library,
1896.
140. Sappho, by H. T. Wharton. (John Lane, 1896.)
Design for cover in gold on blue. Reproduced in
" Early Work." (Property of John Lane, Esq.)
141. Pierrot's Library. (John Lane, 1896.) Design for
title-page of, two designs for end papers, printed in olive
green ; design for front cover and vignette for reserve
cover, printed in gold on red cloth. Reproduced in
" Early Work." (Property of John Lane, Esq.)
142. Love Enshrined in a Heart .in the Shape of a Mirror,
pen-and-ink. First published in " Aubrey Beardsley "
by Arthur Symons. (Sign of the Unicorn, 1898.)
(Property of Andre Raffalovich, Esq.)
143. The Lysistrata of Aristophanes. (Leonard Smithers,
privately printed, 1896.) Eight pen-and-ink designs
to illustrate —
1. Lysistrata.
11. The Toilet of Lampito.
hi. Lysistrata haranguing the Athenian Women.
iv. Lysistrata defending the Acropolis.
v. Two Athenian Women in Distress.
vi. Cinesias soliciting Myrrhina.
vii. The Examination of the Herald.
viii. The Lacedemonian Ambassadors.
An expurgated version of No. 3 was published in
" Second Book," and was repeated together with
IOI

Aubrey Beardsley

expurgated versions or fragments from the re
mainder of the set in " Later Work."
144. The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope. An heroi-
comical poem in five cantos, "embroidered with nine
drawings by Aubrey Beardsley," 4to. Leonard
Smithers, 1896. Now published by John Lane.
(Property of Messrs Keppel, New York.)
1. The Dream.
11. The Billet-Doux (vignette). Reproduced in
St Paul's, April 2, 1898. (Property of
Mrs Edmund Davis. )
hi. The Toilet.
iv. The Baron's Prayer.
v. The Barge.
vi. The Rape of the Lock. (The property of
Messrs Keppel, New York.)
vn. The Cave of Spleen.
viii. The Battle of the Beaux and the Belles. Re
produced in the Idler, March 1897.
ix. The New Star (cul-de-lampe).
Cover design for the original edition.
Cover design for the Bijou edition. (John Lane. )
Reproduced in " Later Work."
145. Design for Wrapper of Catalogue of Rare Books,
No. 7. (Leonard Smithers, 1896.) A lady seated
on a striped settee reading ; a parrot on stand on the
right. Black on leaden-grey paper. Reproduced in
" Second Book," 1896, and " Later Work."
146. The Prospectus of The Savoy. Design for.
1. A burlesque Cupid on a stage with footlights, one
hand holding a copy of the book, whence it
102

Aubrey Beardsley

appears that the original intention was to produce
the first number in December 1895. Repro
duced in " Later Work." Latter part of
1895. (Property of John Lane, Esq.)
11. A suppressed variant of the above, same motif
reversed, only with John Bull substituted for
the Cupid. Reproduced in " Later Work."
hi. Initial letter A in the above Prospectus. Repro
duced in " Later Work."
iv. Publisher's Trade-mark for Leonard Smithers.
First published in " Savoy " Prospectus. The
same, name omitted, appears in " Later Work "
with the title of " Siegfried," 1895.
The Savoy, No. i, January 1896. (Leonard
Smithers.)
v. Cover design, in two states. The original was
suppressed because it depicted too realistically
the contempt of the child in the foreground for
the " Yellow Book," with which the artist had
recently ceased to be connected. The revised
version was republished in " Fifty Drawings,"
and again in "Later Work." (Property of
Mrs George Bealby Wright. )
vi. Title-page. Repeated as title-page in No. 2, and
republished in "Later Work."
vii. Drawing to face Contents. Caricature of John
Bull. Republished in " Later Work."
viii. The Three Musicians. Illustration of the artist's
poem, same title. Republished in " Fifty
Drawings " and " Later Work."
ix. Another drawing to illustrate the above, but with-

103

Aubrey Beardsley

held. It appeared for the first time in " A Book
of Fifty Drawings," 1897. Republished in
" Later Work " and " Under the Hill."
x. Tailpiece to the above. Republished in " Later
Work " and " Under the Hill."
xi. The Bathers (on Dieppe Beach). Republished in
" Fifty Drawings " and " Later Work."
xn. The Moska. This subject was inspired by the
children's dance at the Casino, Dieppe. Re
published in the Idler Magazine, March 1897,
and again in " Later Work." (Property of
Mrs Edmund Davis.)
xm. The Abbe. This and the two designs which follow
appeared as illustrations to " Under the Hill,"
a romantic novel, by Aubrey Beardsley. Re
published in " Later Work." All the illus
trations of " Under the Hill " reissued with
text in a volume bearing same title. John Lane,
1904.
xiv. The Toilet of Helen. Republished in " Fifty
Drawings " and " Later Work."
xv. The Fruit Bearers. Republished in "Later Work."
xvi. A large Christmas Card, in black-and-white. Ma
donna, with fur-edged, richly-flowered mantle.
Issued together with, but not bound in, the book.
Republished in " Fifty Drawings" and " Later
Work."
The Savoy. No. 2. April 1896.
xvii. Cover Design. Republished in " Later Work."
104

Aubrey Beardsley

xvui. A Foot-note. (Fancyportraitof the artist.) Re
published, with omissions, in " Later Work."
Also adapted in gold on scarlet for cloth cover
of " Second Book."
xix. The Ecstasy of Saint Rose of Lima. Illustration
of " Under the Hill." Republished in " Fifty
Drawings " and " Later Work."
xx. The Third Tableau of " Das Rheingold." Re
published in " Fifty Drawings " and " Later
Work."
Scene reproduced from " The Rape of the Lock."
The Savoy. No. 3. July 1896.
xxi. Cover Design. Republished in " Later Work."
xxn. Title-page. Puck on Pegasus. Repeated for the
title of all the succeeding numbers. Republished
in " Later Work." Also, reduced, asdesign for
title-page of " Fifty Drawings," and in gold
on scarlet for the under side of cloth cover of
same.
xxiii. The Coiffing. This and the following design
accompanied Aubrey Beardsley's "Ballad of a
Barber." The Coiffing was republished in the
Idler Magazine, March 1897, and in "Fifty
Drawings " and " Later Work." (Property
of Messrs Obach & Co.)
xxiv. A Cul-de-Lampe. Cupid carrying a gibbet. Re
published in " Later Work."
The Savoy. No. 4. August 1896.
xxv. Cover Design. Republished in " Later Work."
!°5

Aubrey Beardsley

The Savoy. No. 5. September 1896.
xxvi. Cover Design. (Signed, for a practical joke, Giulio
Floriani.) Republished in " Fifty Drawings "
and " Later Work."
xxvii. The Woman in White. A sketch in white on
brown paper. Republished in " Fifty Drawings"
and " Later Work."
The Savoy. No. 6. October 1896.
xxvin. Cover Design ; the Fourth Tableau of "Das Rhein-
gold." Republished in " Fifty Drawings " and
" Later Work."
xxix. The Death of Pierrot. A pen-and-ink sketch. Re
produced in "Later Work." (Property of
Messrs Obach & Co.)
The Savoy. No. 7. November 1896.
xxx. Cover Design. Republished in " Later Worltt"
xxxi. Ave atque Vale ; Catullus, Carmen C.I. Repub
lished in " Fifty Drawings " and "Later Work."
xxxu. Tristan und Isolde. Republished in " Later
Work."
The Savoy. No. 8 (the last issued). December 1896.
xxxiii. Cover Design. Republished in " Later Work."
The same adapted, with the addition of heavy
black bands, and is printed in green and scarlet,
for small poster to advertise the completed work.
xxxiv. A Repetition of " Tristan und Isolde." Repub
lished in " Later Work."
106

Aubrey Beardsley

xxxv. Don Juan, Sganarelle and the Beggar ; from
Moliere's " Don Juan." Republished in " Later
Work."
xxxvi. Mrs Margery Pinchwife, from William Wycherley' s
" Country Wife." Republished in " Later
Work."
xxxvii. Frontispiece to " The Comedy of the Rheingold."
Republished in " Later Work."
xxxviii. Flosshilde, a Rhine Maiden ; to illustrate " Das
Rheingold." Republished in " Later Work."
(Property of Herbert J. Pollit, Esq.)
xxxix. Erda ; to illustrate " Das Rheingold." Re
published in " Later Work."
xl. Alberich ; to illustrate " Das Rheingold." Re
published in " Later Work." (Property of
Herbert J. Pollit, Esq. )
xli. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Republished in
" Later Work." (Property of Herbert J.
Pollit, Esq.)
xlii. Carl Maria von Weber. Republished in " Later
Work."
xliii. Count Valmont, from "Les Liaisons Danger-
euses," by Choderlos de Laclos. Republished
in " Later Work."
xliv. Et in Arcadia Ego. Republished in "Later
Work."
xlv. Small ornament for the cover of bound volumes of
"The Savoy."
xlvi. Sketch of a Child (young girl), unfinished, in
pencil, on the reverse of " A Foot-note." First
107

Aubrey Beardsley

published in " Early Work." (Property of
Frederick H. Evans, Esq.)
147. A Seated Figure. Unpublished design for the
Savoy, occurring as a grotesque in " Bon Mots."
(Property of G. D. Hobson, Esq.)
148. Verses, by Ernest Dowson (Leonard Smithers,
1896), cover design for. Reproduced in "Later
Work." (Property of John Lane, Esq.)
149. The Pierrot of the Minute. A Dramatic Phantasy
in one act. By Ernest Dowson. Leonard Smithers,
1897. (Property of John Lane, Esq.) Four designs
to illustrate : —
1. Frontispiece.
11. Headpiece.
in. Initial letter P.
iv. CuI-de-Lampe.
Reproduced in " Second Book " and " Later Work."
Cover design for the same.
150. Apollo pursues Daphne. (Property of Herbert J.
Pollit, Esq.)
151. The Souvenirs of Leonard, Cover design for. Printed
in gold on purple. Reproduced in " Later Work."
1897.
152. The Life and Times of Madame du Barry, by
Douglas. Leonard Smithers, 1897. Cover design
for. Reproduced in " Later Work." 1897.
153. Frontispiece to A Book of Bargains, by Vincent
O'SuIlivan. Leonard Smithers, 1897. Repro
duced in the Idler, March 1897.
108

Aubrey Beardsley
1 54. Cover Design for A Book of Fifty Drawings, by
Aubrey Beardsley. Leonard Smithers, 1897.
Reproduced in gold on scarlet cloth. Republished on
a reduced scale, in black-and-white, in " Later Work."
155. Silhouette of the Artist. First published as a tail
piece at the end of " Fifty Drawings." Also in Idler
Magazine, March 1897, and in "Later Work."
156. Book-Plate of the Artist. First published in "Fifty
Drawings," 1897, also in " Later Work."
157. Ali Baba. Cover Design for The Forty Thieves.
1. First published in " Second Book," again in
"Later Work," 190 1. (Property of Messrs
Robson & Co. )
11. Ali Baba in the Wood. First published in
"Fifty Drawings," 1897. Also in Idler,
May 1898, and again in " Later Work."
158. Atalanta in Calydon. First published in "Fifty
Drawings," 1897 ; also in the Idler Magazine, March
1897, and again in " Later Work." (This drawing
was exhibited at the Carfax Exhibition, October 1904,
under the title of " Diana," 77.)
159. Messalina returning from the Bath. Pen-and-ink
and water colours. First published in " Second Book,"
again in " Later Work." This drawing, together
with the other one of Messalina, drawn in 1895 (see
supra), two of Bathyllus, and one representing Juvenal
scourging a woman (this last, slightly altered, repro
duced in "Later Work"), belongs to a series of
illustrations to the Sixth Satire of Juvenal. Leonard
Smithers, privately printed, 1897.
109

Aubrey Beardsley

160. The Houses of Sin, by Vincent O'SuIlivan. Leonard
Smithers, 1 89 7. Cover design for. Reproduced in
"Second Book," again in " Later Work."
161. La Dame aux C Amelias. Sketch in water colour to
right. On the fly-leaf of a copy of the book given to
the artist by M. Alexandre Dumas, fils. First published
in "Second Book," again in "Later Work." 1897.
162. Book-Plate for Miss Olive Custance (Lady Alfred
Douglas). Reproduced in photogravure in " Early
Work."
163. Arbuscula. Drawing in line and wash, for the edition
de luxe of Vuillier's " History of Dancing." William
Heinemann, 1897. Reproduced in photogravure;
also an early impression of the same printed in a green
tint. (Property of John Lane, Esq.)
164. Mademoiselle de Maupin, by Theophile Gautier.
Leonard Smithers, 1898. Designs to illustrate : —
1. Mademoiselle de Maupin, frontispiece, water
colour. Reproduced in facsimile by Messrs
Boussod, Valadon & Co., for limited edition,
and, like the rest, in photogravure for ordinary
edition. Reproduced as frontispiece to " Later
Work."
11. D'Albert (small design).
hi. D'Albert in search of Ideals. (Property of Mrs
George Bealby Wright.)
iv. The Lady at the Dressing Table. (Property of
Walter Pollett, Esq.)
v. The Lady with the Rose.
vi. The Lady with the Monkey. All the above
reproduced in photogravure in " Later Work."
I IO

Aubrey Beardsley

165. Ben Jonson his Volpone: or the Foxe. 4to.
Leonard Smithers, 1898.
1. Design in gold on blue for the cloth cover. Same
in black-and-white for opening page. Frontis
piece, design in pen-and-ink.
11. Vignette to the Argument. Initial letter V, with
column and tasselled attachments to the capital.
This and the remaining designs were executed
in pen and crayon.
111. Vignette to Act I. Initial letter V, with an
elephant, having a basket of fruits on his back.
(Property of Herbert J. Pollit, Esq.)
iv. Vignette to Act II. Initial letter S, with a
monster bird, having a pearl chain attached to
its head. (Property of Herbert J. Pollit,
Esq.)
v. Vignette to Act III. Initial letter M, with seated
Venus and Cupid under a canopy, between two
fantastic gynaecomorphic columns. (Property
of Herbert J. Pollit, Esq.)
Vignette to Act IV. (The same as the design
for Act II. repeated.)
vi. Vignette to Act V. Initial letter V, with a horned
terminal figure of a man or satyr. (Property
of Herbert J. Pollit, Esq.)
All these Volpone designs were reproduced in " Later
Work." Drawn at the close of 1897 and early
part of 1898, they constitute the latest designs pro
duced by Aubrey Beardsley before his death.
In his published List, Mr A. E. Gallatin mentions
several sketches and other drawings in private letters
which, for lack of detailed information, I have not in-
III

Aubrey Beardsley

eluded in my List. Many of Aubrey Beardsley's
drawings are constantly changing hands. In each case
the name of the last known owner is given. Where no
owner's name appears, no information has been obtain
able. Some of the finest drawings, I am informed upon
good authority, have now passed into the collection of
Herr Wardofer of Vienna.
I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to the
artist's mother and sister, to Mr G. R. Halkett, Mr
H. C. Marillier, Mr H. A. Payne, and Mr Pickford
Waller. To Mr Frederick H. Evans, who kindly
placed his collection at my disposal, I am under special
obligations. Aymer Vallance

I 12

THE EARLY WORK OF
AUBREY BEARDSLEY
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY H. C. MARILLIER
Price 42s. net (originally published at 318. 6d. net)
^*# Also an Edition printed upon Japanese Vellum,
limited to one hundred and twenty copies for
England and America. Price 84s. net {originally
published at 63s. net). Only six copies of this
remain.
THIS handsome volume was published soon after Beardsley's
death. It contains most of his work up to the time of his
ceasing to be associated with the art editorship of "The
Yellow Book," and includes the remarkable designs illustrating
"Salome," long since out of print. These are considered by the
critics as among the best and most individual work he did.
There are in all upwards of 180 reproductions, in addition to
two characteristic photographs of Beardsley, taken by Mr
Frederick H. Evans.
THE LATER WORK OF
AUBREY BEARDSLEY
Demy 4to. Price 4ZS. net
A*# Also a limited Edition of one hundred and twenty
copies for England and America, printed on Japanese
Vellum. 105s. net [originally published at 84s. net) .
THIS collection was not published until nearly three years
after Beardsley's death, and contains most of the designs
not included in "The Early Work." The two volumes
thus form an almost complete record of his artistic production.
In all there are upwards of 170 reproductions, including 3 in
colour and 11 in photogravure.
In the Japanese Vellum edition several illustrations are repro
duced in photogravure, instead of half-tone as in the ordinary
edition, whilst the frontispiece is hand-coloured.

A LIST OF VOLUMES
CONTAINING ILLUSTRATIONS
BY AUBREY BEARDSLEY

H

A PORTFOLIO OF AUBREY
BEARDSLEY'S DRAWINGS
ILLUSTRATING OSCAR WILDE'S
SALOME
Folio. 13J x 10J inches. Price lis. 6d. net
THE designs of the late Aubrey Beardsley are here reproduced
for the first time, the actual size of the originals, viz.
9 x 6| inches, and are printed upon Japanese vellum.
Included among them is a drawing originally done as an illustra
tion to " Salome," but not included in the volume when published.
This masterly series of designs is without doubt Beardsley's chef
d'auvre, and the care which has been taken in the production of
the blocks makes prints equal in effect to the originals themselves.
SALOME
A TRAGEDY IN ONE ACT TRANS
LATED FROM THE FRENCH OF
OSCAR WILDE
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
ROBERT ROSS, WITH SEVENTEEN
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY
AUBREY BEARDSLEY
Fcap. 4to. 8 x 6J inches. Price 10s. 6d. net
ALSO AN UNILLUSTRATED EDITION
WITH A COVER DESIGN BY
AUBREY BEARDSLEY
Royal i6mo. 6J x 5 inches. Price is. 6d. net

A SECOND BOOK OF
FIFTY DRAWINGS
BY AUBREY BEARDSLEY
Crown 4to. Price ios. 6d. net
^*# This Edition is limited to one thousand copies of the
ordinary issue, and fifty copies printed on Japanese
Vellum {exhausted on publication) .
THE First Book of Fifty Drawings, which preceded this
volume, is now selling at a greatly enhanced price. The
present volume is remarkable as containing several repro
ductions from very early sketches, as well as many executed in
the artist's most individual style, among which is a photogravure
of " Mademoiselle de Maupin," one design in colour, and three
photogravures which show how strong, at one time, was the
Burne-Jones influence upon Beardsley.
THE RAPE OF THE LOCK
BY ALEXANDER POPE
With Nine Full-page Illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley
Crown 4to. Price ios. 6d. net
* Very few copies remain of this volume, which was
originally published at 7 s. 6d. net. The Japanese
Vellum Edition is exhausted.
PERHAPS, with the exception of the series of drawings illus
trating "Salome," no designs are more characteristic, more
strikingly original, than those contained in "The Rape of
the Lock." The edition is now rapidly hearing exhaustion,
and the publisher has decided not to re-issue it in the original
form. This work with the original illustrations is included as
Vol. IX. of "The Flowers of Parnassus." Demy i6mo (5| x 4J
inches). Bound in Cloth, Price is. net. Bound in Leather,
Price is. 6d. net.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE YELLOW BOOK
Continued

Hobbes, John Oliver
Hopper, Nora
James, Henry
Johnson, Lionel
Lee, Vernon
Le Gallienne, Richard
Leverson, Mrs Ernest
McChesney, Dora Greenwell
Miall, A. Bernard
Money-Coutts, F. B.
Moore, George
Nesbit, E.
Nevinson, Henry W.
Phillips, Stephen
Prestage, Edgar
Prevost, Francis
Radford, Dolly
Raleigh, Walter
Risley, R. V. ARTISTIC

Roberts, Charles G. D.
Robertson, John M.
Russell, T. Baron
Salt, H. S.
Sharp, Evelyn
Street, G. S.
Strettell, Alma
Swettenham, Sir Frank
Symons, Arthur
Tadema, Laurence Alma
Tomson, Graham R.
Traill, H. D.
Watson, Rosamund Marriott
Watson, William
Watt, Francis
Watts Theodore
Wells, H G.
Yeats, W. B.

Ball, Wilfrid
Beardsley, Aubrey
Beerbohm, Max
Bell, R. Anning
Bramley, Frank, A.R A.
Cameron, D. Y.
Cameron, Katharine
Christie, J. E.
Conder, Charles
Cotman, F. G.
Crane, Walter
Crawhall, J.
Dearmer, Mabel
Draper, H. J.
Eden, Sir William, Bart.
Forbes, Elizabeth Stanhope
Forbes, Stanhope, A.R.A.
Furse, Charles W.
Gaskin, A. J.
Gaskin, Mrs A. J.
Gotch, Caroline
Gotch, T. C.
Guthrie, James
Hammond, Gertrude D.
Hartrick, H. S.
Henry, George
Hornel, E.
Housman, Laurence

Howard, Francis
Hyde, William
Lavery, John
Lt-ighton, Lord
Macdonald, Frances
Macdonald, Margaret
MacDougall, W. Brown
McNair, J. Herbert
Nettleship, J. T.
New, E. R
Pennell, Joseph
Pimlott, E. Philip
Prideaux-Brune, Gertrude
Reed, Ethel
Robinson, Charles
Roche. A
Rotherstcin, William
Russell, W. W.
Sickert, Walter
Steer, P. Wilson
St<_-venson, R. M.
Strang, William
Sullivan, E. J.
Thornton, Alfred
Vallance, Aymer
Walton, E. A.
Wilson, Patten

THE YELLOW BOOK
AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY
Literary Editor— HENRY HARLAND
Art Editor (Vols. 1. to IV.)— AUBREY BEARDSLEY
Fcap. 4to. Price 5 s. net. 13 Volumes.

I.

April 1894.

272 pp.

15 Illustrations.

II.

July 1894.

36+PP-

23 Illustrations.

III.

October 1894.

280 pp.

15 Illustrations.

IV.

January 1895.

285 pp.

16 Illustrations.

V.

April 1895.

317 pp.

14 Illustrations.

VI.

July 1895.

335 PP-

16 Illustrations.

VII.

October 1895.

320 pp.

20 Illustrations.

VIII.

January 1896.

406 pp.

26 Illustrations.

IX.

April 1896.

256 pp.

17 Illustrations.

X.

July 1896.

340 pp.

13 Illustrations.

XI.

October 1896.

342 pp.

1 3 Illustrations.

XII.

January 1897.

35° PP-

14 Illustrations.

XIII.

April 1897.

316 pp.

18 Illustrations.

IT was in his capacity as art-

editor of

' The Yellow Book " that

1 Beardsley

made his first c

aim to public notice. The earlier

volumes contain twenty designs from his pencil, in addition

to a number

of others from

the best

known black and white

artists of the

day.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS TO
THE YELLOW BOOK

LITERARY

Baring, Hon. Maurice
Beerbohm, Max
Benson, A. C.
Buchan, John
Corvo, Frederick Baron
Crackanthorpe, Hubert
Crosse, Victoria
Custance, Olive
D'Arcy, Ella
Davidson, John
Dobson, Austin
Dowie, Menie Muriel
Dowson, Ernest
Egerton, George

France, Anatole
Frederic, Harold
Fullerton, Merton
Gale, Norman
Garnett, Richard
Gilchrist, R. Murray
Gissing, George
Gosse, Edmund
Grahame, Mrs Cunningham
Grahame, Kenneth
Greenwood, Frederick
Hamerton, Philip Gilbert
Hapgood, Norman
Harland, Henry

THE PIERROT OF THE
MINUTE
A DRAMATIC PHANTASY IN ONE ACT
BY ERNEST DOWSON
With Illustrations and a Cover Design by Aubrey Beardsley
Crown 4to. Price ios. 6d. net
(Originally published at 7s. 6d. net)
#*+ This edition is limited to three hundred copies of
the ordinary issue {of which very few remain) and
thirty copies on Japanese Vellum {now out of print).
A PECULIAR and pathetic interest attaches itself to this
volume on account of the sad, even tragic, end of Ernest
Dowson. The obituary notices following his death were to
many the first intimation of his existence, bnt to those who knew
him there was little room for doubt that he possessed a genius
which was as remarkable as it was ill-starred.
BEN IONSON, HIS VOL
PONE: OR THE FOX
A NEW EDITION, WITH A CRITICAL ESSAY
ON THE AUTHOR BY VINCENT O'SULLIVAN
And Illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley
Demy 4to. Price ios. 6d. net
(Originally published at -°. 6d. net)
+** The Ordinary Edition is limited to one thousand
copies. The Japanese Vellum Edition, limited to
one hundred copies, is now out of print.
MR ROBERT ROSS in his e. ogy considers 1896 as Beardsley's
annus mirabilis, and remarks that it would be impossible to
believe he could have surpassed the work of that year but
for. the illustrations to "Volpone." They characterise in a very
marked manner the singular genius, both in creative faculty and
draughtsmanship, of the artist.

UNDER THE HILL
AND OTHER ESSAYS IN PROSE & VERSE
INCLUDING TABLE TALK
BY AUBREY BEARDSLEY
With numerous Illustrations by the Author
Crown 4to. Price 7s. 6d. net
$.*+ Also an edition printed upon Japanese Vellum,
limited to fifty copies for England and America.
Price 21s. net.
THE increasing popularity of Aubrey Beardsley's volumes of
drawings has prompted his publisher to re-issue his literary
remains, if he may so style them. In this volume are
gathered together his literary contributions in verse and prose to
" The Savoy," his Table Talk, and two letters written to the Press
in reply to criticism, which are characteristic of the humorous
courtesy with which Beardsley received adverse or scornful criti
cism, contenting himself with the weapons of courtesy and humour.
There are also included in this volume several hitherto unpublished
designs which are of great interest to all lovers of his work.
PLAYS
AN HISTORICAL PASTORAL ; A ROMANTIC
FARCE; BRUCE, A CHRONICLE PLAY;
SMITH, A TRAGIC FARCE ; SCARAMOUCH
IN NAXOS, A PANTOMIME
BY JOHN DAVIDSON
With Frontispiece and Cover Design by Aubrey Beardsley
Small 4to. Price 7s. 6d. net
#*4t The Edition is limited to five hundred copies.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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