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Lysistrata defending the Acropolis

Drawing
1896 (made), 1896 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Aubrey Beardsley's distinctive black and white drawings for Oscar Wilde's Salomé, published in 1894, brought him an extraordinary notoriety whilst still in his early twenties. His work for the periodical The Yellow Book confirmed his position as the most innovative illustrator of the day, but as a result of the hostile moralistic outcry that followed the arrest and trial of Oscar Wilde in early 1895, John Lane and other publishers panicked and dropped Beardsley. Thereafter, almost the only publisher who would use his drawings was Leonard Smithers. Smithers was a brilliant but shady character who operated on the fringes of the rare book trade, issuing small, clandestine editions of risqué books with the boast: 'I will publish the things the others are afraid to touch'. Smithers encouraged Beardsley's already growing interest in French, Latin and Greek texts of this kind and commissioned drawings to illustrate the Satires of the late Roman poet Juvenal and, most famously, Aristophanes's bawdy satirical play Lysistrata.

The seemingly obscure and bizarre iconography of the design is in fact explained by reference to Aristophanes' text which describes the comic attempts of the Athenian women to defend the city.

This print comes from the folio of reproductions made from Beardsley's original drawings and published in about 1929. Utilising the expensive collotype process, these prints are much closer to the originals than the earlier line-block prints of the1896 edition of the book or the various, mostly very poor reproductions included in subsequent pirated printings.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Lysistrata defending the Acropolis (assigned by artist)
  • Lysistrata (series title)
Materials and techniques
Pen and ink on paper
Brief description
Drawing by Aubrey Beardsley, 'Lysistrata defending the Acropolis', illustration to 'Lysistrata' by Aristophanes, published by Leonard Smithers, London 1896 (facing page 30), pen and ink on paper, Epsom, England, 1896
Physical description
A drawing in black ink on white paper depicting Lysistrata and two Athenian women, all semi-naked, driving off a small naked man carrying a torch. Two of the women throw the contents of chamber-pots, whilst the third bends over and breaks wind.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 259mm
  • Image width: 179mm
  • Sheet height: 272mm
  • Image width: 190mm
Marks and inscriptions
'AUBREY BEARDSLEY' (Signed in ink bottom left corner)
Credit line
Purchased with Art Fund support
Object history
One of eight illustrations by Beardsley for 'The Lysistrata of Aristophanes' that was published in London by Leonard Smithers in 1896.
Subjects depicted
Associations
Literary reference'Lysistrata' by Aristophanes
Summary
Aubrey Beardsley's distinctive black and white drawings for Oscar Wilde's Salomé, published in 1894, brought him an extraordinary notoriety whilst still in his early twenties. His work for the periodical The Yellow Book confirmed his position as the most innovative illustrator of the day, but as a result of the hostile moralistic outcry that followed the arrest and trial of Oscar Wilde in early 1895, John Lane and other publishers panicked and dropped Beardsley. Thereafter, almost the only publisher who would use his drawings was Leonard Smithers. Smithers was a brilliant but shady character who operated on the fringes of the rare book trade, issuing small, clandestine editions of risqué books with the boast: 'I will publish the things the others are afraid to touch'. Smithers encouraged Beardsley's already growing interest in French, Latin and Greek texts of this kind and commissioned drawings to illustrate the Satires of the late Roman poet Juvenal and, most famously, Aristophanes's bawdy satirical play Lysistrata.

The seemingly obscure and bizarre iconography of the design is in fact explained by reference to Aristophanes' text which describes the comic attempts of the Athenian women to defend the city.

This print comes from the folio of reproductions made from Beardsley's original drawings and published in about 1929. Utilising the expensive collotype process, these prints are much closer to the originals than the earlier line-block prints of the1896 edition of the book or the various, mostly very poor reproductions included in subsequent pirated printings.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Calloway, Stephen. Aubrey Beardsley. London: V & A Publications, 1998. 224pp, illus. ISBN: 1851772197.
  • 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: 1035 Lysistrata defending the Acropolis By 7 July 1896 By 27 June 1896 Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.297-1972) Pen, brush and Indian ink over traces of pencil on white wove paper secured to backing with slotted hinges; 10 3/4 x 7 9/16 inches (273 x 191 mm); signed. INSCRIPTIONS: Recto inscribed by artist in ink at lower left: AUBREY BEARDSLEY; Verso in pencil: 3 / E.297-1972 / 28 FLOWERS: Rose [Bourbon type] (love, passion); olive branch (peace); chrysanthemum [on slop jar] (truth, love, slighted love). PROVENANCE: Leonard Smithers; bt. Herbert J. Pollitt; bt. [sale brokered by R. A. Walker] Sir Gerald F Kelly and Morton H Sands (sole owner by 1958), by descent in 1960 to Sand’s nephew, Colonel M. Sands; offered [with the assistance of Colnaghi Ltd.] to R. A. Harari; bt. Private collector; bt Richard Hughes Hallet (art dealer); offered to B. Rota Ltd. on 20 January 1961; bt. R. A. Harari c. 1962, by descent to Michael Harari; bt. Victoria and Albert Museum in 1972 with the aid of a contribution from the National Art Collections Fund. EXHIBITION: London 1966-8 (189, USA only). LITERATURE: Vallance 1897 (p.210), 1909 (no. 141.iv); Gallatin 1945 (no 1069); Reade 1967 (pp. 360-1, nn. 463, 466); ‘Letters’ 1970 (pp. 139, 140, 142); Zatlin in Langenfeld 1989 (pp. 173, 187, 192); Samuels Lasner 1995 (no.107); Wilson in Wilson and Zatlin 1998 (p. 247 n.156). REPRODUCED: Facing page 30 in ‘Lysistrata’, published by Leonard Smithers in October 1896; ‘Later Work’ 1901 (no. 90, expurgated); Reade 1967 (plate.463). Beardsley mentioned this drawing to Leonard Smithers in a letter postmarked 2 July 1896 and sent it to his publisher in a letter postmarked 7 July, wryly commenting: ‘The rampant Athenians are finished finely; and if there are no cunts in the picture, Aristophanes is to blame and not your humble servant’ (‘Letters’ 1970, p.139, see also pp. 140, 142). For its content, Beardsley condensed two episodes. All of the young men in their prime have gone to war. The old men try to retake the Acropolis by burning down the gates, but the women extinguish their torches and stop the fire before it begins. Their leader argues lengthily with Lysistrata, who loses her patience and, Aristophanes says, throws water on him. Beardsley, however, bawdily interpreted the water as effluvia from chamber pots (Wilson in Wilson and Zatlin 1998, p. 247 n. 156). The stockings in this drawing, ‘The Toilet of Lampito’ and ‘Two Athenian Women in Distress’ (nos. 1033 above and 1036 below) could have been inspired by the work of Felicien Rops, particularly his engravings with watercolour and aquatint ‘La Dame au Cochon ou Pornokrates’ (published 1886) and ‘Les Cousines de la Colonelle’ (1882; both reproduced in Exsteens 1928, vol. IV, plates 435, 901; Reade 1967, pp. 360-1 n.466; see also Zatlin in Langenfeld 1898, pp. 173, 187, 192). But Beardsley subverts Rops’ arousing, receptive woman by emphasising flatulence, rather than genitalia, and resourcefulness, rather than adoration, through which his women will extinguish the flaming torch, a symbol of intercourse, by non-sexual means (pp. 187, 192). Titled only ‘A Design’ when it was reproduced in ‘Later Work’, the reproduction included only the heads of the two women, wrapped in a twice-repeated double border. A few copies were printed in dull mauve (WA).
Collection
Accession number
E.297-1972

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
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