The corpulent Ali Baba wears a jeweled turban, necklace, black cloak, and a waist band draped over his bare frontside.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

In this black ink drawing, the title Ali Baba runs across the top of the sheet. The head of this legendary hero is positioned in between his first and last name. His comically oversized body is shown seated within a blank background. He wears an elaborately jeweled turban, necklace, and black cloak. A waist band is draped over his bare frontside, which the artist has rendered as blank, bulging volumes of flesh.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.647
People
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, British (Brighton, England 1872 - 1898 Menton, France)
Title
Cover Design for "Ali Baba"
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Ali Baba (Cover design for "The Forty Thieves")
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1897
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/297867

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink, white gouache, and graphite on white wove paper
Dimensions
24 x 19.8 cm (9 7/16 x 7 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Commissioned from the artist by Leonard Smithers, 1897. [Messrs. Robson and Co., by 1909]. Fitzroy Carrington, New York, by 1911. [Scott and Fowles, New York], sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, September 20, 1921, bequest; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Zatlin 1073

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.647
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Aubrey Vincent Beardsley and Henry Currie Marillier, The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley, John Lane (London, 1899), pg. 175, no. 41
  • Albert E. Gallatin, List of Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley, M. F. Mansfield and A. Wessels (New York, 1900), pg. 4
  • Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, The Later Work of Aubrey Beardsley, John Lane (London, New York, 1901), pl. 153
  • Albert E. Gallatin, Aubrey Beardsley's Drawings: A Catalogue and a List of Criticisms, Godfrey A.S. Wieners (New York, 1903), pg. 43
  • Robert Ross and Aymer Vallance, Aubrey Beardsley, John Lane, The Bodley Head (London, England, 1909), pg. 109, no. 157(i)
  • Albert E. Gallatin, Aubrey Beardsley: Catalogue of Drawings and Bibliography, The Grolier Club (New York, NY, 1945), pg. 66, no. 1057
  • Martin Birnbaum, Jacovleff and Other Artists, Paul A. Struck (New York, 1946), pl. 37
  • Paul J. Sachs, Modern Prints and Drawings, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (New York, NY, 1954), pl. 164
  • Brian Reade, Aubrey Beardsley, Viking Press (New York, 1967), no. 458, pl. 458
  • Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, The Letters of Aubrey Beardsley, ed. Henry Maas, J.L. Duncan, and W.G. Good, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (Rutherford, NJ, 1970), pp. 96, 141 n., 142-45 passim, 147, 315, 319, 324, 327, 329, 389 and n., 390, 391
  • Jean-Paul Bouillon, Klimt: Beethoven, Skira (Geneva, Switzerland, 1986), repr. p. 56
  • Linda Gertner Zatlin, Aubrey Beardsley and Victorian Sexual Politics, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England, 1990), p. 37, fig. 12
  • Chris Snodgrass, Aubrey Beardsley: Dandy of the Grotesque, Oxford University Press (NY) and Oxford University Press (UK) (New York, NY and Oxford, England, 1995), fig. 3-3, p. 116
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), cat. no. 143, repr. (color)
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 143, repr.
  • Kenneth J. Procter, "Clothing as Texture, Clothing as Symbol", Drawing (American Artist) (Fall 2006), pp. 46-55, repr. p. 48, pp. 49, 51
  • Penley Knipe and Miriam Stewart, "Behind the 'Blot'" Technical Notes on the Drawings of Aubrey Beardsley, Master Drawings (Winter 2015), LIII, no. 4, pp. 523-530, p. 524
  • Linda Gertner Zatlin, Aubrey Beardsley: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2016), vol. 2, no. 1073, pp. 382-384, 457, repr. p. 383, detail repr. p. 354

Exhibition History

  • The First American Exhibition of Original Drawings by Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 12/07/1911 - 12/25/1911
  • Portrait, Prospect and Poetry: British Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Bequest, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/11/1993 - 11/07/1993
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/10/2015 - 11/16/2016

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project
  • Collection Highlights

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be 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