The Climax
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 7/8 × 6 3/8 in. (22.5 × 16.2 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 number2010-31.15
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextThis image, which appeared in the 1894 text, was Beardsley’s second published interpretation of the climactic moment of the drama in which Salomé attains her obsessive entreaty to kiss the mouth of the Baptist. Salomé’s necrophiliac embrace takes place as she hovers above the ground in a kind of erotic ’Assumption.’ Beneath, her pathological incantation, “J’ai baisé ta bouche Iokanaan,” (I have kissed thy mouth, Iokanaan) is inscribed, providing the resolution to her recurring refrain.
