The Toilette of Salomé—I
Date1906
Artist
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley
(British draftsman, illustrator and writer, 1872–1898)
Illustration CitationA Portfolio of Aubrey Beardsley's drawings illustrating "Salome," by Oscar Wilde (John Lane: London, c. 1906)
MediumOffset lithograph
Dimensionscomposition: 8 3/4 × 6 3/16 in. (22.2 × 15.7 cm)
sheet: 13 5/16 × 10 1/4 in. (33.8 × 26 cm)
sheet: 13 5/16 × 10 1/4 in. (33.8 × 26 cm)
Credit LineAcquisition Fund, 2010
Object number2010-31.12
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextWhile the eroticism of the scene depicted in the rejected version of The Toilette has here been pared back, symbols of dissipation abound. Several pairs of scissors, alluding to castration, signify Salomé’s dominatrix character. Decadent books including Émile Zola’s Nana, Paul Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes, and an unidentified title by the Marquis de Sade amplify the decadence of the moment. Beardsley wrote to a friend in November 1893, “I have withdrawn three of the illustrations and supplied their places with three new ones (simply beautiful and quite irrelevant).”
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley
1906
