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An aristocratic woman whips a young man kneeling with his back exposed.

In this black ink drawing, an aristocratic woman wears a shoulder-less gown, which she appears to be holding up with her right hand. In her left hand, she holds up a small whip, and is about to strike a young man who kneels alongside her with his back exposed. Behind them both is a plain mantlepiece and candelabrum, placing this scene in a residential interior.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.641
People
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, British (Brighton, England 1872 - 1898 Menton, France)
Title
Earl Lavender
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Frontispiece Design for "Earl Lavender"
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1894-1895
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/297893

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black ink with traces of graphite on white wove paper
Dimensions
25.9 x 15.6 cm (10 3/16 x 6 1/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Commissioned from the artist by Messrs Ward and Downey, publishers, London, 1894; John Lane, London, before 1903; his widow, Annie Lane; their sale, [Anderson Galleries, New York, November 22, 1926, no. 50 ($650)]; purchased at that sale by [Scott and Fowles, New York]; acquired from them by Grenville L. Winthrop, September 9, 1927 ($1,000); his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Zatlin 944

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.641
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Aubrey Vincent Beardsley and Henry Currie Marillier, The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley, John Lane (London, 1899), p. 87
  • Albert E. Gallatin, Aubrey Beardsley's Drawings: A Catalogue and a List of Criticisms, Godfrey A.S. Wieners (New York, 1903), pg. 33
  • Robert Ross and Aymer Vallance, Aubrey Beardsley, John Lane, The Bodley Head (London, England, 1909), pg. 99, no. 124
  • Joseph Pennell, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Original Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley, exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY, 1923), no. 77
  • Albert E. Gallatin, Aubrey Beardsley: Catalogue of Drawings and Bibliography, The Grolier Club (New York, NY, 1945), no. 971, pg. 56
  • Brian Reade, Aubrey Beardsley, Viking Press (New York, 1967), no. 383, pl. 381
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), cat. no. 113, repr.
  • Linda Gertner Zatlin, Aubrey Beardsley and Victorian Sexual Politics, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England, 1990), p. 132, fig. 87
  • Mark Samuels Lasner, A Selective Checklist of the Published Work of Aubrey Beardsley, Thomas G. Boss Fine Books (Boston, 1995), no. 82
  • Allison Pease, Modernism, Mass Culture, and the Aesthetics of Obscenity, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, 2000), p. 110, repr. p. 111 as fig. 11
  • 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. 142, repr. (color)
  • Linda Gertner Zatlin, Aubrey Beardsley: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2016), vol. 2, no. 944, pp. 158-160, repr. p. 159

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
  • An Exhibition of Original Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley, Brooklyn Museum, 12/19/1923 - 01/31/1924; Milwaukee Art Institute, 10/01/1924 - 10/30/1924; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, 11/01/1924 - 11/30/1924; Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, 11/29/1924 - 12/31/1924
  • Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/23/1969 - 03/31/1969
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004

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