Back cover design for the Pierrot's Library series
Print
1895 (designed), 1896 (published)
1895 (designed), 1896 (published)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Photo process print of clown's face within a bauble or ball with a ribbon at the top tied in a bow. The face resembles a half moon
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Back cover design for the Pierrot's Library series (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Buff cloth stamped with design in dark green. |
| Brief description | Back cover ornament design by Aubrey Beardsley for 'Pierrot's Library'. Great Britain, published 1896. |
| Physical description | Photo process print of clown's face within a bauble or ball with a ribbon at the top tied in a bow. The face resembles a half moon |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Production type | Mass produced |
| Marks and inscriptions | Pierrot's Library |
| Object history | Pierrot's Library, no. III. A.T.G. Price, 'Simplicity'. Published by John Lane, London, 1896. 16mo Stamped cloth of back cover removed and mounted. |
| Associated object | E.421-1899 (Set) |
| Bibliographic reference | The following excerpts are from Zatlin, L.G. (2016) Aubrey Beardsley. A catalogue raisonné. 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 172 and 176 (Vol. 2):
'...made for a series of four novels published by Lane during 1896. They first appear in Henry de Vere Stacpoole's 'Pierrot!', printed in red and published in January of that year. Subsequent volumes are Mrs Egerton Castle's 'My Little Lady Anne' for which the drawings were printed in blue and published in May; A.T.G. Price's 'Simplicity' for which they were printed in green and published in October; and Vincent Brown's 'My Brother' for which they were printed in brown and published in October'.
'One source for this drawing is Tom Meteyard, the designer of the front cover for 'Poems from Vagabondia' by Bliss Carmen and Richard Hovey...Meteyard's design has three faces and a dark crescent (Reade 1967, p.352 n.398). The idea may also have come from Odilon Redon's 'Eclosion', no. 1 of his 'Dans le rêve' (1879) and his lithograph of 1894, 'Cellule auriculaire'. Or it may represent a witch ball...For Victorians the ball became a protection against evil, particularly death, entering a home, and it was hung from the ceiling near the front door....The placement of a witch ball on the back cover might indicate Beardsley's wish to protect this volume. As it also reflects Pierrot's face, an image often linked with the artist, it could equally suggest his desire for protection against his own death. In shape the drawing is also Beardsley's pun on ornament, the decorative detail, and ornament, a Christmas tree bauble, which it closely resembles.' |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.420-1899 |
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| Record created | June 30, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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