The Toilette of Salome

Object Type
This is a book illustration to Oscar Wilde's Salome, first published by John Lane in 1894.

People
Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) received his first commission in 1894. His short career lasted from this commission to his tragically early death of tuberculosis in 1898 at the age of 25. Beardsley is principally known for his work as a book illustrator. With little formal art training he evolved a unique style, characterised by black and white work and delicate line drawing. He combined this with an unconventional approach to illustration where he did not slavishly follow the text but gave full rein to his imagination: this was particularly the case with 'Salome'. Beardsley placed aesthetic interpretation over historical correctness, preferring the illustrations to be, as he said, 'simply beautiful but irrelevant'.

Historical Association
Although Beardsley was closely linked in the public mind with Oscar Wilde they did not work closely together even on this commission. It is therefore understandable that Beardsley deeply resented the fact that the Wilde scandal of 1895 cost him his editorship of 'The Yellow Book'. This said, in Beardsley's own work he often sought to overturn social and aesthetic conventions. In the 'Salome' illustration Beardsley did make reference to the Aesthetic style that Wilde promoted, including the E.W. Godwin-style dressing table and, in the earlier version, Japanese and Islamic ceramics. While Beardsley and Wilde shared an interest in the decadence of this femme fatale, Beardsley's first version had outrageous sexual references, unacceptable to both the author and publisher.