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Notes:
Provenance:
The property of a gentleman;
Christies London, 26th October 1982, lot. 77.

Exhibited:
New York, Gallery of Modern Art, Aubrey Beardsley, 1967, no. 80.

Literature:
Brian Reade, Beardsley (London 1967), no 114, pls. 113, 157 (detail of verso, no 157).

Published:
Sir Thomas Mallory, Le Morte Darthur (London 1893-4), Bk. X, Chap. LII.

On the verso of the work is a sketch of the border, caricatures of a woman and a stooping man, and a note 'Please let me know next initial/also what part of the book is covered by part of (?)/Yours Aubrey Beardsley in great haste'.

Walter Crane said of Beardsley that he was "one of the new school of black-and-white artists illustrated in my book (Of the Decorative Illustration of Books Old and New (London 1896)). He had won distinction by a very rich and inventive series of designs to Sir Thomas Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur . . . These and the earlier work of the artist generally showed the influence of Rossetti and Burne-Jones and a love of emphatic black-and-white decorative pattern . . . but soon other influences gained the ascendancy, notably Japanese, leading to the use of fine outlines and solid blacks, as in the designs to Salome. A quality or feeling, however, generally characterised as “morbid”, which, from the first, was present in the designs and conceptions of this refined and gifted artist, ultimately seemed to gain the ascendancy, overshadowing his sense of beauty, and inducing him to spend his skill upon loathly or corrupt forms and subjects. This, at least, was the impression left by many of his later designs, though these very quantities may have increased their value and added to their piquancy in the eyes of his eager collectors. For there was no doubt of his rapid success. He want of physical health, to which indeed might be ascribed the morbid elements of his work, finally overcame him, and early death cut short a brilliant career”.υ1

1. Walter Crane, An Artist’s reminiscences, (London 1907), P. 416.