BEARDSLEY, Aubrey

Issue of Five Drawings, An

London: Leonard Smithers, 1906. Item #06391

“Too Free for Circulation”
Beardsley’s Suppressed Juvenal & Lucian Drawings
A Clandestine Portfolio of Decadent Eroticism, Limited to 120 Copies

BEARDSLEY, Aubrey. An Issue of Five Drawings Illustrative of Juvenal and Lucian. London: [Leonard Smithers], 1906.

Limited to 120 copies.

Folio (13 3/8 x 8 15/16 inches; 340 x 227 mm.). [2, Title, verso blank], [2, Limitation statement, verso blank], [2, The Drawings, verso blank], five full page illustrations.

In the original reddish-plum paper portfolio, titled "Aubrey Beardsly/An Issue of Five Drawings/Illustrative of/Juvenal and Lucian/Price £1 1 0 net". Hinge of portfolio expertly and almost invisibly repaired. Now housed in a felt-lined, three-quarter maroon morocco clamshell case, spine with five raised bands, ruled and lettered in gilt in compartments.

1. Juvenal Scourging Woman [1896]
2. Bathyllus in the Swan Dance
3. Bathyllus Posturing
4. Lucian's Strange Creatures
5 Birth from the Calf on the Leg


"This issue contains five exceedingly brilliant Drawings by the late Aubrey Beardsley which have been regarded as too free in design for general circulation. Three of these illustrate THE SIXTH SATIRE OF JUVENAL (the satire against Woman), and the remaining two designs were intended for LUCIAN'S TRUE HISTORY issued about twelve years ago, but were never included in the volume. These Drawings are printed from the original blocks, and as only a few engraver's proofs have previously been pulled, the impressions are perfectly clear, and may be regarded (considering the few copies now printed) as Proofs. On hundred and twenty copies only have been printed (each numbered) on vellum paper, foolscap folio in size, and enclosed in suitable coloured wraper. This copy is No........." (Limitation leaf).

"120 numbered copies. Reade and Dickinson variously date this to 1897 and 1899 as well as 1905, the year given by Gallatin. The prospectus (printed on paper) includes the introductory material from the colophon leaf." (Lasner)

The reason these drawings were described as “too free in design for general circulation” is closely tied to the moral panic surrounding the Decadent movement in the 1890s, particularly after the trial of Oscar Wilde in 1895.
Understanding this context makes the portfolio far more interesting historically.

Why the Drawings Were Suppressed:

1. The Post-Wilde Cultural Backlash. After Wilde’s conviction for “gross indecency” in 1895, British authorities and publishers became extremely cautious about Decadent literature and art. Artists and writers associated with the movement - including Aubrey Beardsley and his publisher Leonard Smithers - suddenly found themselves under scrutiny. Beardsley had already been linked to Wilde through: his illustrations for Salome and his association with the magazine The Yellow Book. When Wilde was arrested, Beardsley was dismissed from The Yellow Book immediately, even though he had no involvement in the scandal.

2. The Juvenal Drawings Were Explicitly Misogynistic and Erotic. Three of the five designs illustrate Satire VI by the Roman satirist Juvenal. That satire is famous for its violent attack on women, including themes of: sexual excess,adultery, cruelty, moral corruption. Beardsley’s images amplify those themes with: sadomasochistic imagery, grotesque exaggeration and decadent erotic symbolism. One drawing - “Juvenal Scourging Woman” - shows a stylized scene of punishment that Victorian publishers considered unprintable.

3. The Lucian Drawings Were Equally Strange. The remaining designs relate to True History by Lucian of Samosata.
Lucian’s narrative includes: bizarre hybrid creatures, surreal transformations and absurd erotic imagery. Beardsley illustrated these themes with grotesque fantasy forms, including the notorious drawing “Birth from the Calf on the Leg.” Even in the 1890s this was considered extreme grotesquerie.

4. Why Smithers Published Them Anyway. Smithers specialized in Decadent and semi-clandestine publications.
His catalogue included: works by Oscar Wilde, erotic or controversial literature and privately circulated art portfolios.
Rather than issuing the drawings publicly, he solved the problem by: printing only 120 copies; selling them mainly to collectors and presenting them as “proof impressions”. This allowed him to avoid the attention that a commercial edition might attract.

Some scholars believe the drawings were originally intended for a full illustrated edition of Juvenal that never appeared - another project abandoned after the Wilde scandal made such work commercially risky.

Among the five plates in An Issue of Five Drawings Illustrative of Juvenal and Lucian, the one that caused the greatest discomfort to early editors and museum curators was “Juvenal Scourging Woman.” It is widely regarded by Beardsley scholars as the most controversial image in the portfolio, and for several decades it was either omitted or discreetly suppressed in exhibition catalogues.

Why “Juvenal Scourging Woman” Was So Problematic: The drawing illustrates Satire VI by Juvenal - a notoriously misogynistic Roman satire attacking the morals of women in imperial Rome.

Beardsley’s treatment is deliberately extreme: a stylized female figure subjected to punishment; theatrical cruelty rendered with elegant line and erotic undertones typical of Decadent imagery

The combination of violence, sexuality, and satire made Victorian publishers extremely nervous.

For late-19th-century Britain - even in avant-garde circles - this imagery crossed a line.

Why Museums Avoided Showing It: After the scandal involving Oscar Wilde in 1895, institutions tried to distance themselves from anything connected to the Decadent movement. As a result, exhibitions of Aubrey Beardsley’s work often excluded this drawing and some catalogues reproduced only four of the five images.
Early 20th-century Beardsley monographs occasionally described it but did not illustrate it. This pattern persisted well into the mid-20th century.
The Other Drawing That Alarmed Editors and the second most controversial plate is: “Birth from the Calf on the Leg.”

This grotesque design depicts a bizarre mythological birth scene that borders on the surreal.

Its imagery - combining: distorted anatomy, symbolic fertility, grotesque fantasy - made it one of Beardsley’s strangest inventions. For decades it was regarded as too eccentric and unsettling for mainstream reproduction.

Why the Portfolio Matters in Beardsley’s Career
The five drawings represent Beardsley’s final stylistic phase (1896), when his line became: extremely thin, highly ornamental and almost abstract

This same late period produced his famous illustrations for: Lysistrata and the magazine The Savoy. The style is more extreme than his earlier work for Salome.
A Collector’s Perspective

Many Beardsley collectors consider this portfolio appealing because it contains: suppressed drawings, late-period Beardsley, printing from the original blocks and a tiny limitation (120 copies)

It is therefore one of the closest things to a “private portfolio” of Beardsley erotica issued in the early 20th century.

Gallatin 30; Lasner 149.

Price: $9,500.00