| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Tristan und Isolde
(assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Indian ink |
| Brief description | Drawing by Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), 'A Repetition of 'Tristan und Isolde'. Drawing reproduced on P.[11] in 'The Savoy', No. 8, December 1896. Signed 'AB'. Indian Ink. |
| Physical description | Two women in a garden; they look towards a man standing in front of them. |
| Dimensions | - Image height: 185mm
- Image width: 162mm
- Sheet height: 189mm
- Sheet width: 166mm
Dimensions from catalogue: 18.7 x 16.3 cm |
| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions | |
| Credit line | Purchased with Art Fund support |
| Object history | Drawing reproduced on P.[11] in 'The Savoy', No. 8, December 1896.
Provenance: R A Harari |
| Literary references | |
| Summary | Aubrey Beardsley took full advantage of the flexible steel pen nibs introduced in the 19th century. Unlike those made from quills, these nibs provided a steady flow of ink, allowing him to create immensely controlled lines. Beardsley made virtually no preparatory studies before beginning a composition, only a slight pencil indication on the same sheet as the finished drawing. He colluded in the romantic mythology that grew up around his virtuosic draughtsmanship, claiming to one interviewer that he was only able to draw by candlelight. |
| Bibliographic references | - Cogeval, Guy & Avanzi, Beatrice (Eds.), De la Scene au Tableau, Paris : Flammarion, 2009
183
- 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:
1022
A Repetition of ‘Tristran und Isolde’
By 12 October 1896
Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.306-1972)
Pen, brush and Indian ink over pencil under drawing on white wove paper secured to backing with slotted hinges; 7 1/2 x 6 9/16 inches (190 x 166 mm); signed.
INSCRIPTIONS: Recto in ink: [pentimenti under bottom and right black masses] / [monogram at lower right corner in box]; A B; Verso in ink: The Dispute of the Works of Chopin [crossed out with wavy line] / [in pencil]: A Repetition of ‘Tristran und Idolde’ [underlined] / V&A / E.306-1972 / [in triangle]: 25 / AB / 183 / 6 inches in width / Smithers / 449 / Fy x rev
FLOWERS: Rose [Bourbon type] (love, passion).
PROVENANCE: Leonard Smithers; …; Morton H. Sands (1923-58); R. A. Walker?; …; 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 1923-4 (39), 1940b (28), 1966-8 (522), 1973 ; Munich 1984 (222); Rome 1985 (17.17).
LITERATURE: Vallance 1897 (p. 211), 1909 (no. 146); Turquet-Milnes 1913 (p. 278); National Gallery, London 1923-4 (no. 39); Gallatin 1945 (no 1017); Reade 1967 (p. 358, n. 444); ‘Letters’ 1970 (pp. 183, 184); Zatlin 1990 (p. 75); Samuels Lasner 1995 (no. 103); Zatlin 1997 (p. 254, n.83); Sutton 2002 (pp. 171-3).
REPRODUCED: ‘Savoy’, No. 8, December 1986 (p. 11); ‘Later Work’ 1901 (no. 139); ‘Best of Beardsley’ 1948 (plate 97); Reade 1967 (plate 444).
Beardsley sent this drawing to Smithers in a letter postmarked 12 October 1896 with an accompanying note: ‘I send the Repetition of Tristram und Isolde’ (‘Letters’, 1970, p. 183). Smithers’s response to the drawing may have been lukewarm, and Beardsley commented, ‘I’m sorry you didn’t like the Repetition of Tristram’ (unpub. Als. Christie’s sale 20 November 1992, lot 14). Smithers may then have praised the drawing or Beardsley wrote with his usual wry commentary, ‘Am glad you are not entirely disappointed with the Repetition of Tristram’ (‘Letters’ 1970, p. 184). Smithers should have liked this drawing compared with the earlier black on black designs (for example, no. 890 above), Beardsley’s handling is here more powerful; Walker perceives ‘a vast increase of power [over] the black on black designs in ‘The Yellow Book’’ (National Gallery, London 1923-4, no. 39). Moreover, like ‘The Comedy of the Rhinegold’ (no. 1020 above), it follows the music, specifically says Oliver Lodge, ‘the melody of the first phrase of the prelude of Wagner’s Tristam and Isolde. The curve, as I understand, begins at the sash or sleeve of the lady on the left, rises over their necks, sinks to the hip of the conductor and travels up his body, whose curve expresses the rising melody, and rises again into his hand’ (PULRAW, C0470, Box 3, folder 1, als to R. A. Walker, 31 November 1935). The design also reveals Beardsley’s advances on Burne-Jones who ‘exaggerates the width of the hips of his women and diminishes it in men’ and, less than Beardsley, ‘throws the body weight on one leg’ (Turquet-Milnes 1913, p. 278). Like Beardsley’s other works in which three figures are the main focus, this drawing may show one woman chaperoning the other; it also exposes the power relations between the sexes (Zatlin 1997, p. 254, n.83)
In addition to opening the possibility that one may see the drawing as the depiction of a lesbian subject based on the ‘mildly claustrophobic atmosphere’ and the manner in which the women ‘lean intimately towards each other’, Sutton also examines the implication of the French meanings of Beardsley’s title word ‘repetition’: rehearsal or tuition (2002, p.171). She argues that the male figure could be a music coach or teacher, and ‘in its sensual intensity’, the scene could be a parody of the ‘exemplary decorous, genteel, feminine’ middle-class music lessons by ‘implying that these figures are anticipating or repeating the subject - the eroticism and sexual duplicates - of the drama (pp. 170-2).
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