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Cul-de-Lampe

Print
1893 (drawn), 1894 (first published), 1907 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Black and white line block print on Japanese vellum depicting the naked dead body of Salome complete with elaborately curled hair being laid into a coffin adorned with roses. She is carried by a black-garbed pierrot with extravagant hair on the left of the image and a faun-like figure on the right. There is an over-sized powder puff on the right of the image, which obscures part of the coffin as well as the faun-like figure's legs.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Cul-de-Lampe (alternative title)
  • A Portfolio of Aubrey Beardsley's drawings illustrating 'Salome' by Oscar Wilde (series title)
Materials and techniques
Line block print on Japanese vellum
Brief description
Print by Aubrey Beardsley, tailpiece entitled 'Cul-de-Lampe', plate XVII from 'A Portfolio of Aubrey Beardsley's drawings illustrating 'Salome' by Oscar Wilde', published by John Lane, London, 1907, line block print on Japanese vellum
Physical description
Black and white line block print on Japanese vellum depicting the naked dead body of Salome complete with elaborately curled hair being laid into a coffin adorned with roses. She is carried by a black-garbed pierrot with extravagant hair on the left of the image and a faun-like figure on the right. There is an over-sized powder puff on the right of the image, which obscures part of the coffin as well as the faun-like figure's legs.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 137mm (approx.)
  • Image width: 155mm (approx.)
  • Sheet height: 344mm
  • Sheet width: 272mm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'PLATE XVII' (Printed text in the lower left hand corner of the sheet.)
  • (Signed with the artist's monogram in the centre of the image.)
Credit line
Given by Michael Harari, in memory of his father, Ralph A. Harari
Object history
From 'A Portfolio of Aubrey Beardsley's drawings illustrating 'Salome' by Oscar Wilde'. Second issue. Published by John Lane, London [1907]. With contents sheet in letterpress and 17 plates [E.422 to 438-1972] in a portfolio of grey-green paper boards, half bound in vellum, with green silk tapes, stamped in gold with title and the rose-bush motif from the 1894 edition. With the stamp of A. Lang Buchhandlung Moskau inside the front cover.

The plates are no longer in the portfolio but are now mounted separately.
Production
First printed in 1894; this print is from the second edition, 1907.
Subject depicted
Association
Literary referenceOscar Wilde's 'Salome'
Bibliographic references
  • Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1972
  • Calloway, Stephen. Aubrey Beardsley. London: V & A Publications, 1998. 224pp, illus. ISBN: 1851772197.
Other number
Plate XVII - Plate number
Collection
Accession number
E.438-1972

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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