Initial Letter S (Falcon)

1898 · Drawing

May one see it?

Not receiving at present

Cambridge, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

1894–1896
His health sharply declines
Between 1894 and 1896, at the height of his success, his health sharply deteriorated. “I know my illness is incurable,” he wrote to Raffalovich, “but I am sure measures can be taken to slow its course.”
December 1896
A violent haemorrhage
In December 1896 Beardsley suffered a violent haemorrhage, which left his health precarious.
31 March 1897
Received into the Catholic Church
On 31 March 1897 Beardsley was received into the Catholic Church. His close friends included both Anglican clergymen and Catholic priests, who acknowledged the sincerity and depth of his faith.
April 1897
Moves to Menton
By April 1897 his failing health prompted a move to the French Riviera, to Menton. There he was cared for by his mother and his sister Mabel, while his chief financial support came from the writer and patron Marc-André Raffalovich.
7 March 1898
A dying plea to destroy “Lysistrata”
In his last letter, to his publisher Leonard Smithers and his friend Herbert Charles Pollitt, Beardsley implored them to destroy all copies of Lysistrata and all obscene drawings. Both ignored his wish, and Smithers went on selling reproductions and forgeries of his work.
16 March 1898
Death in Menton
Beardsley died of tuberculosis at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Menton, fully conscious, with his mother and sister at his side; he was twenty-five. The next day, after a requiem Mass in Menton Cathedral, he was buried in the Cimetière du Trabuquet.