2004.91: Sandro Botticelli

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2004.91

People

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, British (Brighton, England 1872 - 1898 Menton, France)

Title

Sandro Botticelli

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1893

Culture

British

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/193479

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Graphite on tan wove paper, laid down

Dimensions

35.5 x 20 cm (14 x 7 7/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: graphite, l.r.: AVB
• inscription: formerly attached to back of frame, brown ink: Letter from R. A. Walker [Georges Derry], presumably to Desmond Coke, was adhered to the backboard. The first part of the letter is largely illegible due to the glue remnants, but part of the letterhead (Oakley Crescent ... / Chelsea, S.W. 3) can be seen. Letter reads: [...] take many months / [second page] I am afraid. / The Sandro Botticelli / drawing I know. I will make a note that it is / in your possession. It / was until lately I think / in the hands of James / Tregaskis the bookseller, & / is a very fine example / --probably the best of / his early work. / Yours very truly / R. A. Walker; added in another hand (Coke's?): [Georges Derry] / 5.4. '19
• clipping: formerly attached to back of frame, printed: Newspaper cutting: Aubrey Beardsley / To the Editor of the Times. / Sir,--May I inquire whether any of your readers / can give me any information in regard to pub- / lished or unpublished drawings by the late Aubrey / Beardsley? I am shortly going to publish a new and revised / bibliography of the works of this artist, and I / shall be very glad to hear from any owners of / his drawings, or collections of his books, especially / in regard to items not already mentioned or any / drawings which have lately changed hands. / I am, Sir, your obedient servant, / Georges Derry / 34, Oakley-crescent, Chelsea S.W.
• clipping: formerly attached to back of frame: Clipping from unidentified sale catalogue: AUBREY BEARDSLEY, 1872-1898. /118 SANDRO BOTTICELLI. Bust "portrait," long hair falling to the / shoulders which are covered with richly-figured costume; architectural back- / ground, suggestive of the Renaissance. 14 x 18 in. Finished pencil-drawing, / signed. [something cut out?] (1893) /Mr. Aymer Vallance thus relates the story of this most interesting / drawing in his article on the "Invention of Aubrey Beardsley" (Mag. of Art, / May, '98): "I remember on one occasion he [Beardsley] was telling me of his / amusement in noting how the different students at Brown's school would / always interpret the subject before them, each according to his own individu- / ality: the stout men drew stout figures and vice versa. In fact, he remarked / upon the universal tendency to reproduce one's own personal type . . . . / 'Not surely in the case of Botticelli?' I asked; and, on his replying in the / affirmative, I suggested that it would be an interesting experiment to recon- / struct Botticelli's portrait from the materials supplied in his own works. The / idea evidently attracted Beardsley, for, without saying any more, he went off, / evolved a head of Botticelli on those lines, and not long afterwards, came and / presented it to me." /See illustration, reduced size, facing p. 17 in this catalogue.
• label: formerly attached to back of frame: collector's label: DESMOND COKE'S / COLLECTION
• inscription: lower right, graphite, in artist's hand: SANDRO BOTTICELLI
• inscription: backboard, blue ballpoint ink: Propiedad de: / This portrait of Sandro Botticelli was presented / to Aymer Vallance, in 1893, by his creator / Aubrey Beardsley. / Aubrey Beardsley, (1872-98) British artist. Born / at Brighton England, and self-trained except / for a brief term at the Westminster School of / Art. He illustrated Malory's "Morte d'Arthur," / and Wilde's Salome, and was one of the / "Yellow Book" (q.v.) and the "Savoy Magazine." / He also executed a famous frontispiece to "Volpone" / Mastery of line and rare decorative sense / were the main characteristics of his work.
• inscription: backboard, graphite: AUBREY BEARDSLEY

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Aubrey Beardsley (London), gift; to Aymer Vallance. James Tregaskis (London). Desmond Coke (London) by 1919. Sotheby's (New York, Arcade sale, January 11-12, 1999, lot 578), sold; to Vermeer Associates Limited, 1999, sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2004.

Note: A letter formerly attached to the back of the frame from R.A. Walker (Georges Derry) presumably to Desmond Coke notes this drawing had recently belonged to James Tregaskis, the bookseller.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number

Zatlin 242

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, The Richard Norton Fund and the Kate, Maurice R. and Melvin R. Seiden Special Purchase Fund in memory of Frederick Deknatel and in honor of Virginia Deknatel

Accession Year

2004

Object Number

2004.91

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• Aymer Vallance, "The Invention of Aubrey Beardsley", Magazine of Art, Cassell, Petter & Galpin (London and New York, May 1898), p. 367, repr. p. 365
• Robert Ross and Aymer Vallance, Aubrey Beardsley, John Lane, The Bodley Head (London, England, 1909), no. 47
• Albert E. Gallatin, Aubrey Beardsley: Catalogue of Drawings and Bibliography, The Grolier Club (New York, NY, 1945), no. 242
• Henry Currie Marillier, The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley, Dover Publications Inc. (New York, NY, 1967), pl. 38
• Gail S. Weinberg, "Aubrey Beardsley, the Last Pre-Raphaelite", Pre-Raphaelite Art in Its European Context, ed. Susan P. Casteras, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (Madison, Teaneck, NJ, 1995), pp. 220, 222, fig. 4
• Arcade Auction: Old Master and 19th Century European Art, auct. cat., Sotheby's, New York (New York, NY, 1999), repr. p. 166 as lot 578
• Stefan Weppelmann and Ruben Rebmann, ed., The Botticelli Renaissance, exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie Berlin (Berlin, 2015), cat. no. 55, repr. p. 84, pp. 82, 83
• Linda Gertner Zatlin, Aubrey Beardsley: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2016), vol. 1, no. 242, pp. 138-139, repr. p. 138
• Mark Evans and Stefan Weppelmann, Botticelli Reimagined, exh. cat., V & A Publishing (London, 2016), pp. 82, 83, cat. no. 55, repr. p. 84

Exhibition History

• The Botticelli Renaissance, Gemäldegalerie Berlin, Berlin, 09/25/2015 - 01/24/2016; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 03/05/2016 - 07/03/2016

Verification Level