?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,500 - $ 4,000
AUBREY BEARDSLEY (1872-1898) CHILDREN'S BOOKS. 1894. 30x20 inches. Condition B+: minor losses and time staining in margins; vertical and horizontal folds. For another publisher, Beardsley again designs a stock poster leaving the entire right side devoid of imagery and ready for the printer's text. A decadent aesthete, "the most striking thing about Beardsley's work, and the source of its immediate fame, is the intense, erotic (or better, narcissistic) atmosphere it exudes. Once the shock of recognition passes it can be seen that Beardsley was an incredibly assured draughtsman and a perversely inventive designer" (Word & Image p. 18). This curvaceous, sultry woman must have been the kind of Beardsley image contemporary critics loved to hate, especially with her eye-catching brooch which appears to replace her cleavage on her vast breast. It certainly is an unexpected image to promote the sale of children's books. In La Plume's 1899 Album d'Affiches et d'Estampes only the image was offered for sale. The complete poster with the text is rare. DFP I 5, Reims 1348.
