Ink drawing of five figures in a garden.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The central image of the ink drawing depicts a perfectly symmetrical, circular garden, lined with paths and surrounded by a wall. In the foreground, four standing figures in long, column-like robes look towards the center of the drawing, where a fifth figure lies in repose under a tree, which is placed directly in front of a water fountain. The image is surrounded by an intricate border of twisting vines and flowers. An inset panel in the bottom left reads “HOW FOUR QUEENS FOUND LANCELOT SLEEPING”.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1986.667
People
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, British (Brighton, England 1872 - 1898 Menton, France)
Title
How Four Queens Found Launcelot Sleeping; verso: Tabernacle(?) and Two Heads
Other Titles
Series/Book Title: Le Morte Darthur
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1893
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/294861

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink over graphite on white paper; verso: heads in red chalk, sketch in graphite
Dimensions
31 x 24 cm (12 3/16 x 9 7/16 in.)

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Zatlin 459

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Scofield Thayer
Accession Year
1986
Object Number
1986.667
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Martin Birnbaum, Introductions: Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists, Frederic Fairchild Sherman (New York, NY, 1919), repr. opp. p. 8
  • Blake to Beardsley: A Century of English Illustrators, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1944), no. 1
  • James Dempsey, The Tortured Life of Scofield Thayer, University Press of Florida (Gainesville, FL, 2014), pp. 58, 186
  • Linda Gertner Zatlin, Aubrey Beardsley: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2016), vol. 1, no. 459r, p. 290, repr. p. 291 (recto); no. 495v, p. 290, repr. p. 290

Exhibition History

  • Blake to Beardsley: A Century of English Illustrators, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1944 - 06/30/1944

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu