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| Antique print - Exquisite Illustration to Oscar Wilde's "Salome" - "The Climax" 1948Exquisite image by Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (1872 – 1898) - an English illustrator and author. His drawings, executed in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A. McNeill Whistler. Beardsley's contribution to the development of the Art Nouveau style and the poster movement was significant, despite the brevity of his career... Beardsley was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned for his dark and grotesque images: "I have one aim—the grotesque. If I am not grotesque I am nothing." Wilde said he had "a face like a silver hatchet, and grass green hair." (Wikipedia)Beautiful Illustration to Oscar Wilde's "Salome", first published in 1894 - "The Climax" - A version of the drawing "J'ai baise la Bouche" which first appeared in the Studio No. 1. for April 1893. It was probably the drawing which procured him the commission to illustrate Salome (R A Walker)
NB this image was printed in 1948. Salome is a tragedy by Oscar Wilde. The original 1891 version of the play was in French. Three years later an English translation was published. The play tells in one act the Biblical story of Salome, stepdaughter of the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who, to her stepfather's dismay but to the delight of her mother Herodias, requests the head of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the dance of the seven veils. (Wikipedia) Mounted on a stunning jet black mount with a slight sheen. |
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