Beardsley’s depiction of gender and sexuality is striking, and his illustrations of the nude human body is always tethering on a perceived recognizability that simultaneously undermines his readers knowingness. This is the title page of Salome from the 1907 edition. There are figures with the assumed female features (breasts, insinuated lips and eye liner, wide hips), but that possess the masculine features as well, mostly being the penis and an abundance of pubic hair surrounding the groin. There are figures that "that blur the gender binary" by having traditionally feminine features (breasts, insinuated lips and eye liner), and the masculine features as well...
moreENGL 499: Arthur Machen Dashboard
Description
Collaborative workspace for students in ENGL 499: Arthur Machen
Galleries, Timelines, and Maps
The first version of The Toilet of Salome was produced in 1894 (although an alternate version was featured in Salome). Notice the sharp black lines. Beardsley’s attempt to “violate arts grammar” in his depictions of Salome demonstrate how the form of his art (print illustrations) shaped how Beardsley would challenge conventional artistic practices (188). Beardsley "experimented enthusiastically with the properties of this new “line block” printing" of his era" (188). Through the limitations of print, Beardsley focused on mashing Japanese, Renaissance, and decadent styles (191). Machen also played around with the formal choices that contained his writing, and this in turn had a great impact of the type of writing produced by Machen. In his essay “The Literature of Occultism”, Machen claims that what makes good writing is when it “belongs to the region of things...
moreIn a 1908 interview that appeared in The Strand, illustrator Sidney H. Sime claims his work was deeply influenced by his own "omnivorous and indiscriminate reading" (notably including works by Poe and De Quincey), by illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, and by Japanese art. According to Sime, Beardsley's morbid temperament and "extraordinary" technique had undoubtedly influenced himself and nearly every one of his contemporary illustrators. He claimed that the same was also true of Japanese Art. An illustrator of things morbid, strange, fantastical, and occult, it is fitting that Sime would come to illustrate literary works of fantasy, occult, and the weird, including fantasy works by Lord Dunsany and the weird/horror tales of Arthur Machen, an author whose early works were also illustrated by Beardsley. In this exhibit, we explore how both Beardsley and Sime contributed to the difficult work of visualizing strange, unseen worlds and chilling, ineffable horrors that (as Machen... more
This timeline explores how illustrations played a role in characterizing the works of Arthur Machen, with Aubrey Beardley's illustrations flagging him as a Decadent author and S.H. Sime's illustrations bring him in line with authors of fantasy and the weird.