Aubrey BeardsleyBritish, 1872–1898The Lacedaemonian Ambassadors
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Not on view at present
Where is “The Lacedaemonian Ambassadors” now? Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Aubrey Beardsley's distinctive black and white drawings for Oscar Wilde's Salomé, published in 1894, brought him an extraordinary notoriety whilst still in his early twenties. His work for the periodical The Yellow Book confirmed his position as the most innovative illustrator of the day, but as a result of the hostile moralistic outcry that followed the arrest and trial of Oscar Wilde in early 1895, John Lane and other publishers panicked and dropped Beardsley. Thereafter, almost the only publisher who would use his drawings was Leonard Smithers. Smithers was a brilliant but shady character who operated on the fringes of the rare book trade, issuing small, clandestine editions of risqué books with the boast: 'I will publish the things the others are afraid to touch'. Smithers encouraged Beardsley's already growing interest in French, Latin and Greek texts of this kind and commissioned drawings to illustrate the Satires of the late Roman poet Juvenal and, most famously, Aristophanes's bawdy satirical play Lysistrata.
Read on
Beardsley knew of the ancient Greek theatrical tradition whereby the actors in comedies wore enormous stage-prop phalluses. He made appropriate and amusing use of the motif in several of his illustrations to Aristphanes' broad sexual comedy. Here he also makes a play upon the idea that in time of war the Lacedaemonian men dressed their hair and wore make-up without damaging their potency.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Details
- Accession number
- E.301-1972
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
In the life of Aubrey Beardsley
The whole life1894
Art editor of The Yellow Book
In 1894 Beardsley, together with the American writer Henry Harland, became art editor of The Yellow Book; for its first four issues he produced the covers and many illustrations.
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.”
April 1895
Wilde's arrest costs him The Yellow Book
When Oscar Wilde was arrested in April 1895, a journalist mistakenly wrote that he had taken “the yellow book” to prison rather than simply a yellow-covered book. For Victorian England that was enough: Beardsley lost his place at the magazine and his livelihood.
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.
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.
