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Portrait of Himself

Print
1894 (drawn), 1899 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Swan Electric Engraving (printer)
Bodley Head (publisher)
Aubrey Beardsley (artist)
Place of origin
Great Britain (made)

Line block print depicting the artist as a small figure in the centre of a large opulent bed. Only the face is visible underneath a large spotted nightcap, peeping around the bed curtains which are decorated with floral motifs and tassels. Lettered in French in the top left corner: 'Par les dieux jumeaux tous les monstres ne sont pas en Afrique' [By the twin Gods, not all monsters are in Africa], in reference to the artist's frail health and the danger of tuberculosis. These are the opening lines from 'Le Pédant Joué' by Cyrano de Bergerac (1654).

Object details

Categories
Prints
Books
Portraits
Object type
Print
TitlePortrait of Himself (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Line-block
Paper
Paper
Line-Block
Brief description
Line block print by Aubrey Beardsley, self-portrait, printed 1899
Physical description
Line block print depicting the artist as a small figure in the centre of a large opulent bed. Only the face is visible underneath a large spotted nightcap, peeping around the bed curtains which are decorated with floral motifs and tassels. Lettered in French in the top left corner: 'Par les dieux jumeaux tous les monstres ne sont pas en Afrique' [By the twin Gods, not all monsters are in Africa], in reference to the artist's frail health and the danger of tuberculosis. These are the opening lines from 'Le Pédant Joué' by Cyrano de Bergerac (1654).
Dimensions
  • Size of sheet height: 27.7cm
  • Size of sheet width: 20.7cm
  • Size of image height: 16.45cm
  • Size of image width: 10.4cm
Dimensions taken from Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1996
Object history
This print is illustration no. 63 taken from a copy of The early work of Aubrey Beardsley with a prefatory note by H.C. Marillier, The Bodley Head, London - New York, 1899. Only 120 copies were published in this Japanese vellum edition. It was first published as no.1 of Four Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley in The Yellow Book, volume III, October 1894, by John Lane, London and Copeland and Day, Boston.
Subjects depicted
Self-Portrait
Aubrey Beardsley
Associated object
E.429-1899 (Duplicate)
Bibliographic references
  • Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1996
  • Beardsley, Aubrey and H. C. Marillier. The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley. London - New York: The Bodley Head, 1899. no. 63
  • Four Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley. The Yellow Book, volume III London: John Lane, 1894. no. 1
  • Sturgis, Alexander, Rupert Christiansen, Lois Oliver and Michael Wilson Rebels and Martyrs : The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century. London : The National Gallery, 2006 48
  • The following excerpt is from p. 103 of Aubrey Beardsley: A Catalogue Raisonné, Volume II, Linda Gertner Zatlin, Yale University Press, 2016: 'Because the face in the drawing does not resemble Beardsley's, this design could illustrate the beginning of chapter seven of Venus and Tannhäuser when the Abbé awakens (Fletcher 1987, p. 150; Fletcher in Langenfeld 1989, p. 245). In addition to being a portrait, the image belongs to the tradition of the dreaming figure and could be an allusion to Fuseli's Nightmare, with Beardsley protected by a female Pan figure who is 'an integral part of his horrible dreams, asleep or awake' (Heyd 1986, pp.162-3).'
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.30-1996

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Record createdApril 20, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O225831/portrait-of-himself-print-aubrey-beardsley/
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