Aubrey Beardsley Poster, 1950s-1960s

Description

Print on paper. At the bottom the words 'Gallery Five PU4/IK - Black Cape by Audrey Beardsley - Printed in … more Print on paper. At the bottom the words 'Gallery Five PU4/IK - Black Cape by Audrey Beardsley - Printed in England'. This is a 1950s-60s re-edition by the London gallery of one of the Art Nouveau illustrations created by Audrey Beardsley for Oscar Wilde's theatrical drama 'Salomé: a tragedy in one act', written in French in 1891 by Oscar Wilde, published in London in English for the first time in 1893 and released the following year accompanied by sixteen illustrations by the young artist. Wilde's irreverent genius found full response in Beardsley's drawings: Beardsley's very elegant black and white silhouettes are the exact icon of the style that the designer and the writer embodied, that is, the figure of the dandy who elevates himself and his life to a work of art, through an egocentric satisfaction with his own aesthetic refinement. The flat, asymmetrical, superficial decorations of Beardsley proposed themselves in clear contrast with trompe l'oeil naturalism, with everything that is volume or plastic body, with massive, heavy, overloaded forms, with the excess of details, in short with the taste of the mature Victorian era. The work is presented in a frame. This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



issues arising from misattribution less