“The Peacock Skirt”
This 1894 Art Nouveau style woodblock print on Japanese vellum is by the English Aesthetic artist, Aubrey Beardsley, and is titled “The Peacock Skirt”. It is one of the images Beardsley created to illustrate Oscar Wilde’s 1891 play, ‘Salomé’. These illustrations helped cement his career. ‘Salomé’ was a scandalous play in its day; a one act tragedy telling the story of Salomé, the stepdaughter of King Herod, asking for the head of John the Baptist after she performs the dance of the seven veils. The play was originally banned in England, so it was rewritten in French.
Although this image is one of Beardsley’s more well-known works, it upset a couple of well-respected people in its time. “The Peacock Skirt” is said to be Beardsley’s interpretation of James Whistler’s work titled “The Princess from the Land of Porcelain.” Whistler was apparently very unhappy with what he saw as a blatant copy of his painting. The critics, however, loved Beardsley’s work, and gave it much praise.
This praise actually upset Oscar Wilde himself, who thought the illustrations were getting more notice than the play they were meant to illustrate. Wilde said “I admire, I do not like Aubrey’s illustrations. They are too Japanese, while my play is Byzantine”. This commission work contained some very risqué illustrations which earned Beardsley a name and reputation. I guess we are just drawn to the shock and awe.
There are several original woodblock prints of “The Peacock Skirt” available for the public to view. One is located at the Fogg Museum of the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Another is located at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England.
For more on Aubrey Beardsley, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
