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Initial Design for the decorated spine of J. M. Dent's edition of Sir Thomas Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur'
Aubrey Beardsley, 1872-1898
1892-93
Pen and ink with pencil under-drawing showing the change from the initial position of the leaves, on four separate pieces of paper, the title and top border inset above the ornamental panel
Inscribed 'LA MORTED ARTHUR SIR THOMAS MALORY Knt' and 'J.M. DENT & CO ALDINE HOVSE MDCCC XCITF'
10 3/8 x 2 7/8 inches, 26.3 x 7.4 cm.
Provenance: The archives of J. M. Dent and Son
Commentary by Hilary Morgan
In 1892 Beardsley was commissioned by the publisher J. M. Dent to make illustrations and cover designs for a sumptuously produced edition of Le Morte d'Arthur. This particular drawing was Beardsley's original design for the book spine and shows his incorrect spelling of the title which was later changed.
In the autumn of 1892 Beardsley wrote to E. J. Marshall:
The best and biggest thing I am working on at present is Malory's Morte Darthur (a splendid edition de luxe) for which I am getting £200. (Not bad for a beginning is it?) I have everything to do for the book, which will be coming out at first in parts. There will be twenty full-page drawings (eight on copper and twelve on zinc), about a hundred small drawings in the text, nearly 350 initial letters and the cover to design. The drawings I have already done have met with great approval from all who have seen them. The first part will be coming out early next year (Maas, 1970). Malory's Morte d' Arthur, first printed by Caxton in 1485, was almost forgotten at the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, by the time Dent undertook his edition in 1892 it had become a popular book. Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites were the main figures to promote this revival of interest. Tennyson's Idylls of the King (1859-1872) were hugely popular because they retold Malory through Victorian eyes. (Swinburne, the Pre-Raphaelite poet, jocularly termed them the Morte d'Albert after Victoria's husband.) The Pre-Raphaelites responded to the romantic and symbolic elements in Malory's narrative. Rossetti, Burne-Jones and William Morris all discovered Malory independently in the early 1850s. Their first major Arthurian works were the Oxford Union Murals of 1857. After this Arthurian themes occurred regularly in Pre-Raphaelite art, especially in the work of Burne-Jones. He was fascinated by the Grail legend, and his largest painting is 'The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon' (completed 1898, Museo d'Arte, Ponce, Puerto Rico; Information from Dr. Christine Poulson whose forthcoming book on Arthurian themes in Victorian Art will be published by the Cambridge University Press).
In the summer of 1891, while Burne-Jones was working on designs for 'The Quest of the Holy Grail' tapestries for Stanmore Hall, Beardsley visited his studio.
'By the merest chance,' he wrote to A.W. King, 'I happened to have some of my best drawings with me, and I asked him to look at them and give me his opinion ... he said "All are full of thought, poetry and imagination. Nature has given you every gift which is necessary to become a great artist. I seldom or never advise anyone to take up art as a profession, but in your case I can do nothing else."'
'Afterwards we returned to the lawn and had afternoon tea... The Oscar Wildes and several others were there. All congratulated me on my success, as "Mr. Burne-Jones is a very severe critic".'(Maas, 1970)
The acclaim with which the book was received established the reputation of the twenty-one year old Beardsley as the most brilliant book illustrator of his generation.
References
Maas, Henry (ed.). The Letters of Aubrey Beardsley. London: J.L. Duncan and W.S. Good, 1970.
Morgan, Hilary and Nahum, Peter. Burne-Jones, The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Century. London: Peter Nahum, 1989. Catalogue number 165.
Last modified 26 March 2002