'After Supper, Every Night’, by Eleanor Vere Boyle

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After Supper, Every Night

Eleanor Vere Boyle

Chromolithographic print by Leighton Bros.

10½ x 8 inches

EVB [Eleanor Vere Boyle]. Beauty and the Beast, plate 6

One of the strangest designs in all Victorian illustration, this luxuriously coloured image draws a dramatic contrast between the Beast (who is personfied as a surreal cross between a mole and a walrus) and the Pre-Raphaelite refinement of the Beauty. [Commentary contines below.]

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Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

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However, EVB also suggests their togetherness by combining a series of emblematic devices. For example, the two love-birds are billing and cooing, while the Beauty sits in a chair which is embellished on one of its legs with an animal's claw; essentially, she is contained within her seat as if she were already in the Beast's possession.

Bibliography

Boyle, E. V. Beauty and the Beast. London: Sampson Low, 1875.

Created 20 June 2020