“Arthur and the Strange Mantle”
Today I will highlight one of my favorite illustrators…
“Arthur and the Strange Mantle” is a lithograph by the English Art Nouveau and Aesthetic illustrator, Aubrey Beardsley, from 1893. This piece is one of Beardsley’s illustrations of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, a collection of 360 pieces that he made when he was just 21 years old.
The Beardsley illustrated edition was initially released in 1893 under the glorious and lengthy title, The Birth Life and Acts of King Arthur of His Noble Knights of the Round Table Their Marvelous Enquests and Adventures The Achieving of the San Greal and in the End the Morte DArthur with the Dolorous Death and Departing out of This World of Them All. The text was modernized for a new, younger audience. It was a huge success upon its release.
In Malory’s version of the King Arthur story, Morgan le Fey, Arthur’s evil sister, tries to kill Arthur by sending him an enchanted mantle that will burn and kill whoever wears it. Fortunately, Arthur is warned of this deceiving device by the Lady of the Lake. The King tells the messenger that he will only take the mantle after the messenger wears it first. When the messenger wears the mantle, she is burned to ashes.
In Beardsley’s illustration, the mantle in question is being offered to Arthur who holds out his hand to it. This lithograph was located between pages 132 and 133 in the original publication.
The original drawing of “Arthur and the Strange Mantle” is currently in a private collection.
For more on Aubrey Beardsley, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
