J’ai baisé ta bouche Iokanaan, in Joseph Pennell, “A New Illustrator: Aubrey Beardsley,” The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art, Volume I, Number 1, April 1893.

Aubrey Beardsley

J’ai baisé ta bouche Iokanaan, in Joseph Pennell, “A New Illustrator: Aubrey Beardsley,” The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art, Volume I, Number 1, April 1893.

“Good-bye, poor genius!” wrote “W. L.” [William Lawler] mournfully in The London Year Book of 1898, responding to Beardsley’s death. There he also noted that “To Mr. Joseph Pennell is due a great part of the credit of introducing Beardsley to the world.” A transplant from Philadelphia and disciple of J. M. Whistler, Pennell (1857–1926) was famed for prints and drawings in a style very different from the young Beardsley’s. Nevertheless, he brought immediate, positive attention in 1893 to the unknown artist through his enthusiastic commentary in The Studio, a new magazine of the visual arts. Among the works reproduced in Pennell’s article was Beardsley’s drawing of Salome levitating after kissing the object of her desire, the severed head of John the Baptist. It was inspired by Beardsley’s reading of Oscar Wilde’s play, and its publication led to Beardsley receiving the commission to illustrate Salome for the Bodley Head.

From the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press