This illustration by Aubrey Beardsley is called “The Cave of Spleen” and was drawn for the poem book The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope, published in 1897. It is a clear demonstration of Beardsley’s uniquely ‘grotesque’ style, with people crowded into each other so uncomfortably closely in what appears to be a sitting room. With how closely all the figures in the illustration are depicted, it appears almost like they are “very unstable and changeable” (Carter), and seems to the eye like the figures are going through “grotesque transformations”. They reflect very closely what I would consider a very Machen feeling, such as that which is projected from “The Lost Club”, wherein an anxiety and an uncomfortable feeling is showcased within the picture. It furthering the disturbance that Pope wrote into his poem that the image was published alongside, “Unnumber’d Throngs, on ev’ry side are seen”.
Works Cited:
Beardsley, Aubrey. “The Cave of Spleen”. The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope, 2nd ed., Leonard Smithers, 1897, pg. 45. Royal Academy of Arts, https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/the-cave-of-spleen.
Carter, Leighton. “Beardsley’s Grotesque Cave of Spleen”. The Victorian Web, Brown University, 2007, https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/beardsley/carter.html.