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An ink and wash drawing of two figures sitting at a table.

The ink and wash drawing shows two figures seated next to each other at a booth, with the table between them and the viewer. The figure on the left wears a plumed hat with a dotted veil. They have two small horns on their forehead, and pointed shoulder pads in their dress. The figure on the right has a more ornamental hat, decorated with flowers, ruffles and a large bow. A folded card and a small cup with a saucer sit on the table before them.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1986.673
People
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, British (Brighton, England 1872 - 1898 Menton, France)
Title
Black Coffee
Other Titles
Alternate Title: An Evil Motherhood
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1895
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/295059

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink, gray wash, and graphite on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
15.7 x 15.9 cm (6 3/16 x 6 1/4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
John Lane (M. Jean Ruelle [Beardsley's name for John Lane]); Herbert J. Pollitt (1909);* [Scott & Fowles, New York] sold November 4, 1919; to Scofield Thayer, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1986


*marked to indicate ownership but not dated, in iconography in his copy of "Book of Fifty Drawings"

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Zatlin 922

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Scofield Thayer
Accession Year
1986
Object Number
1986.673
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Linda Gertner Zatlin, Aubrey Beardsley and Victorian Sexual Politics, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England, 1990), pp. 127, 129, fig. 82
  • 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), fig. 160, under cat. no. 141
  • 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. 2, no. 922, pp. 123-126, pp. 33, 119, 171, repr. p. 58, 125, detail repr. p. 58
  • Stephen Calloway and Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, ed., Aubrey Beardsley, exh. cat., Tate Publishing (London, 2020), checklist no. 142, repr. p. 52

Exhibition History

  • Aubrey Beardsley, Tate Britain, London, 03/04/2020 - 09/20/2020; Musée d'Orsay, 10/12/2020 - 01/10/2021

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