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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E , Case I, Shelf 50, Box E

The Stomach Dance

Print
1894 (first published), 1907 (published)
Artist/Maker
Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent (artist)
Lane, John (publisher)
Place of origin
London (made)
London (published)

Black and white line block print on Japanese vellum depicting Salome doing the dance of the seven veils. She is scantily clad, with her breasts and stomach exposed and wears a peacock feather headdress. There are a group of roses to her right, which are seemingly floating in mid-air. In the lower left hand corner of the image is a drooling grotesque figure playing a stringed instrument, whose phallus is barely disguised as part of his clothing.


Object details

Categories
Prints
Illustration
Theatre
Books
Designs
Object type
Print
Titles
  • The Stomach Dance (generic title)
  • A Portfolio of Aubrey Beardsley's drawings illustrating 'Salome' by Oscar Wilde (series title)
Materials and techniques
Line block print on Japanese vellum
Line Block
Brief description
Print by Aubrey Beardsley, 'The Stomach Dance', plate XI 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 Salome doing the dance of the seven veils. She is scantily clad, with her breasts and stomach exposed and wears a peacock feather headdress. There are a group of roses to her right, which are seemingly floating in mid-air. In the lower left hand corner of the image is a drooling grotesque figure playing a stringed instrument, whose phallus is barely disguised as part of his clothing.
Dimensions
  • Height: 342mm
  • Width: 272mm
Dimensions checked: Measured 21/04/1999 by LH Current mount is H 53, W 38
Style
Art Nouveau
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'PLATE XI' (Printed text in the lower left hand corner of the sheet.)
  • (Signed with the artist's monogram in the lower right hand corner 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.
Subjects depicted
Dancing
Salome
Association
Wilde, Oscar
Literary referenceOscar Wilde's 'Salome'
Bibliographic references
  • Howard Coutts Emile Gallé and the Origins of Art Nouveau The Bowes Museum, 2007.
  • 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 XI - Plate number
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.432-1972

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Record createdOctober 29, 2007
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O140255/the-stomach-dance-print-beardsley-aubrey-vincent/
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