Aubrey Beardsley Part 5

VII. Reduced reproduction of the second version of the Jeanne d'Arc procession. The same appeared, full size, as a folding plate supplement, in No. 2 of _The Studio_, May 1893.

In the first number of _The Studio_ (April) also were published, by antic.i.p.ation, four designs from the "Morte Darthur," due to begin its serial appearance in the following June, viz.:--

VIII. Initial letter I.

IX. Merlin taketh the child Arthur into his keeping (full page, including border).

X. Ornamental border for full page.

XI. Frieze for chapter-heading; six men fighting, on foot, three of them panoplied. Reproduced in _Magazine of Art_, November 1896, "Fifty Drawings," _Idler_, March 1897, and _St Paul's_, April 9th, 1898. The original drawing is 13-3/4 inches long by 4-1/2 inches.

As may be seen, even in the reduced reproduction, one inch at either end was added by the artist at the request of his publisher, so as to increase the proportionate length of the ornament. Subsequently Mr Frederick H. Evans photographed the drawing, full size, and produced fifteen platinotype copies, of which twelve only were for sale, and the plate destroyed.

58. DESIGN OF DANDELIONS, for publishers' trade mark for Dent & Co.

59. LE MORTE DARTHUR, by Sir Thomas Malory. J. M. Dent & Co. 300 copies on Dutch hand-made paper and 1500 ordinary copies. Issued in Parts, beginning June 1893.

I. Vol. I., 1893. Frontispiece--"How King Arthur saw the Questing Beast, and thereof had great marvel." Photogravure.

Full-page ill.u.s.trations:--

II. Merlin taketh the child Arthur into his keeping. (Reduced reproduction in _Idler_, May 1898.)

III. The Lady of the Lake telleth Arthur of the sword Excalibur.

IV. Merlin and Nimue.

V. Arthur and the strange mantle.

VI. How four queens found Launcelot sleeping. (Property of A. E.

Gallatin, Esq.)

VII. Sir Launcelot and the witch h.e.l.lawes. (Property of A. E.

Gallatin, Esq.)

VIII. How la Beale Isoud nursed Sir Tristram.

IX. How Sir Tristram drank the love drink.

X. How la Beale Isoud wrote to Sir Tristram.

XI. How King Mark found Sir Tristram sleeping.

XII. How Morgan le Fay gave a sword to Sir Tristram.

XIII. Vol. II., 1894. Frontispiece--"The achieving of the Sangreal."

Photogravure. (This was the first design executed for the work.)

Full page and double page ill.u.s.trations:--

XIV. How King Mark and Sir Dinadan heard Sir Palomides making great sorrow and mourning for la Beale Isoud (double page).

XV. La Beale Isoud at Joyous Gard (double page).

XVI. How Sir Launcelot was known by Dame Elaine (full page).

XVII. How a devil in woman's likeness would have tempted Sir Bors (double page).

XVIII. How Queen Guenever rode on maying (double page).

XIX. How Sir Bedivere cast the sword Excalibur into the water (full page).

XX. How Queen Guenever made her a nun (full page).

In the two volumes there are altogether 548 ornaments, chapter-headings, borders, initials, tail-pieces, etc.; but some of them are repet.i.tions of the same design, others reproductions of the same design in two different sizes. (Two of these are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Eight belong to Pickford Waller, Esq.

Others are the property of Hon. Gerald Ponsonby, R. C. Greenleaf, Esq., W. H. Jessop, Esq., M. H. Sands, Esq., Robert Ross, Esq., and Messrs Carfax & Co.)

XXI. Chapter-heading, a dragon, with conventional foliage spray branching into marginal ornaments; printed, but not published in the book.

XXII. Initial letter J with guardian griffins; pen-and-ink, 5-1/2 3-1/2 inches.

XXIII. Unfinished border design, first published in "Whistler's Art Dicta and Other Essays" by A. E. Gallatin (Boston, U.S.A., and London, 1903). (Property of A. E. Gallatin, Esq.)

XXIV. Original study, approved by the publisher, for wrappers of serial issue of the "Morte Darthur," yellowish green water-colour on white paper, 10-1/4 8-1/4 inches. This design, comprising lilies, differs from that which was finally produced by the artist and published (next item). (Property of Aymer Vallance, Esq.) 1893.

Design for wrappers of serial issue, in black on grey paper, in two states, the earlier or trial-state, having blank s.p.a.ces for the lettering, only the t.i.tle being given as "La Mort Darthure."

XXV. Design in gold on cream-white cloth cases of the bound volumes.

Nineteen of the above designs were republished in "A Book of Fifty Drawings," and again in "Later Work," including full-size reproductions of the following, which had suffered through excessive reduction in the published "Morte Darthur."

XXVI. Merlin (in a circle), facing list of ill.u.s.trations in Vol. I. The same reproduced in _The Idler_, March 1897.

XXVII. Vignette of Book I., chapter xiv. Landscape with piper in a meadow and another figure in the sky.

XXVIII. Vignette of Book III., chapter iii. Three swans swimming.

XXIX. Vignette of Book V., chapter x. Nude woman rising out of the sea, holding in one hand a sword, in the other a rose.

60. PALL MALL MAGAZINE, JUNE 1893.

I. Of a Neophyte, and how the Black Art was revealed unto him by the Fiend Asomuel. Full-page ill.u.s.tration in pen and ink. Asomuel, meaning insomnia, was a neologism of the artist's own devising, made up of the Greek _alpha_ privative, the Latin _somnus_, and the Hebrew _el_, for termination a.n.a.logous to that of other spirits' names, such as Gabriel, Raphael, Azrael, etc., reproduced in "Early Work," July 1893.

II. The Kiss of Judas. Full-page ill.u.s.tration in pen-and-ink. Reproduced in "Early Work."

61. LA COMeDIE AUX ENFERS, pen and ink, published in "Modern Ill.u.s.tration,"

by Joseph Pennell. (G. Bell & Sons, 1895.) Imp. 16mo. 1893.

62. I. EVELINA, by Frances Burney. (Dent & Co., 1894.) Design in outline for t.i.tle-page.