| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Fidei Defensor. Degas
(assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Pen and Indian ink and graphite on paper |
| Brief description | Drawing by Aubrey Beardsley, 'Fidei Defensor. Degas', caricature in the form of a design for a coin showing Queen Victoria as a Degas ballet dancer, graphite, pen and Indian ink on paper, London, ca. 1893 |
| Physical description | A drawing in black ink on white paper depicting a caricature of Queen Victoria as a Degas ballet dancer. |
| Dimensions | - Height: 133mm
- Width: 134mm
|
| Marks and inscriptions | - (Inscribed in graphite with notes)
- 'FIDEI DEFENSOR / DEGAS' (Inscribed in ink)
|
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Henry Herbert Harrod |
| Object history | Bequeathed by H. H. Harrod, 1948 |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Association | |
| Summary | The humour of this drawing resides in the incongruity of the head of the 'widow of Windsor' in her widow's weeds of black mourning dress and white bonnet - the Queen's usual apparel - surmounting the balletic legs of a Degas dancer. Inscribed is 'FIDEI DEFENSOR' |
| Bibliographic references | - Calloway, Stephen. Aubrey Beardsley. London: V & A Publications, 1998. 224pp, illus. ISBN: 1851772197.
- Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design, and Department of Paintings, Accessions: 1948, Volume II, Henry Herbert Harrod Bequest, London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1957
- Linda Gertner Zatlin, Aubrey Beardsley : a catalogue raisonne. New Haven : Yale University Press, [2016] 2 volumes (xxxi, [1], 519, [1] pages; xi, [1], 547, [1] pages) : illustrations (some color) ; 31 cm. ISBN: 9780300111279
The entry is as follows:
279
The New Coinage: Degas
late January 1893
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.39-1948)
Pen and Indian ink over pencil on off-white wove paper secured to backing with slotted hinges; 5 5/16 x 5 1/4 inches (135 x 134 mm).
INSCRIPTIONS: Recto inscribed by the artist in ink below right bottom of circle: DEGAS / [inside circle]: FIDEI DEFENSOR / [at bottom in pencil in another hand]: 2 [crossed out] / 1 ½ inches diameter by Monday / 6 / 12; verso in pencil: PMG / 8459 / 6 Monday / 39-1948
PROVENANCE: Herbert von Garvens; W. T. Spencer (bookseller); H. H. Harrod; bequeathed to Victoria and Albert Museum in 1948.
EXHIBITION: London 1966-8 (161), 1983 (150b); 1993 (96).
LITERATURE: Vallance 1909 (no.55.ii); Uncollected Work 1925 (p.xx); Gallatin 1945 (no. 249-52); Reade and Dickenson 1966-8 (no. 161); Reade 1967 (p.314 n.41); Samuels Lasner 1995 (no.8); Snodgrass 1995 (p.37).
REPRODUCED: Reade 1967 (plate 41, where titled Caricature of Queen Victoria as a ballet dancer).
Like the caricature of Walter Crane (no.277 above), this design implicitly refers to the 1893 Queen Victoria £5 gold coin that bears the legend ‘Victoria, by the grace of God queen of Britain, defender of the faith, empress of India’. Victoria’s image on the coin, her easily worn crown, chastely veiled head and calm profile, contrast with this grim-faced but nimble ballet dancer who performs her duty under all circumstances. By attributing this sketch to Degas, whose paintings of ballerinas highlighted their poise, agility and balance, Beardsley suggests that the sensible Victoria keeps her crown squarely on her head as she moves under the banner of ‘Fidei Defensor’, ‘Defender of the Faith’. Beardsley’s joke partially resides in the fact that ‘Defender of the Faith’ was the title the Pope awarded to Henry VIII for his ‘assertion of the Seven Sacraments’ in response to Martin Luther. Henry shortly thereafter broke with Rome, abandoning the faith he had defended (the late Steve Glaze, personal communication, 13 August 2002). In contrast, as head of the Church of England, Victoria resisted any drift towards Rome, but her political conservatism weakened the power of the Crown - she was against the 1884 reform Act that gave the vote to working-class males and broadened the English voting base by about six million. Her people loved her, and his design may be a scandalous representation because Beardsley ‘associates the moralistic queen not only with one of the era’;s most morally suspect of female professions but also with [the music hall] a notorious rendezvous for illicit trysts’ (Snodgrass 1995, p.37).
Beadlsey, however, was well aware of the furore over degas’ L’Absinthe (1875-6, Musee d’Orsay, Paris) and by signing the painter’s name of this portrait, Beardsley signals that he too will challenge the media (despite the fact that this drawing was too daring to be published). He made two other pictures that paid tribute to Degas at roughly the same time (see nos. 819, 932 below). Beardsley advanced the road towards ‘inventing the pop art use of jingoistic emblems’ (Brophy 1969, p.78). According to the notes in the Beardsley file in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Victoria and Albert Museum, ‘This drawing appears to have been intended for reproduction in the Pall Mall Budget, 9 February 1893 [with nos. 275-8 above], but a caricature of the manner of Burne-Jones was substituted’. For further comment, see 274 and 275 above.
|
| Collection | |
| Accession number | |
