Ink and watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/aubrey-beardsley-716" aria-label="More by Aubrey Beardsley" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Aubrey Beardsley</a>
La Dame aux Camélias
Presented by Colonel James Lister Melvill at the request of his brother, Harry Edward Melvill 1931
<p>The title of this illustration comes from the celebrated French novel by Alexander Dumas II about a generous-hearted courtesan who sacrifices herself for her lover. Beardsley shared a similar fate to the courtesan, suffering from tuberculosis that would eventually kill him. However, this drawing must also be considered as one of a series of fetishistic pictures Beardsley made of women preparing themselves at their dressing table. As a depiction of self-contemplation, in the cut-off mirror, it also suggests the theme of narcissism.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique ink watercolour
28 April 2003 – 18 April 2004
2004-04-18
28 April 2003 – 18 April 2004
2004-04-18
2003-04-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-04-28
Decadence
Collection based display
29 January 2011 – 4 September 2011
2011-09-04
29 January 2011 – 15 May 2011
2011-05-15
2011-01-29
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Birmingham, UK)
http://www.bmag.org.uk
2011-01-29
The Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphelite Designs, Studies and Watercolours.
Loan-out
1 September 2014 – 30 November 2014
2014-11-30
1 September 2014 – 30 November 2014
2014-11-30
2014-09-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
2014-09-01
Oscar Wilde. Aubrey Beardsley. Look from Russia
Loan-out
4 March 2020 – 20 September 2020
2020-09-20
4 March 2020 – 20 September 2020
2020-09-20
2020-03-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
16 June 2020 – 13 September 2020
2020-09-13
2020-06-16
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
2020-03-04
Aubrey Beardsley
Exhibition
12 October 2020 – 12 January 2021
2021-01-12
12 October 2020 – 12 January 2021
2021-01-12
2020-10-12
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
2020-10-12
Aubrey Beardsley
Loan-out
La Dame aux Camélias
support: 279 × 181 mm
Presented by Colonel James Lister Melvill at the request of his brother, Harry Edward Melvill 1931
<p>The title refers to the novel  by Alexandre Dumas fils, published in 1852, which tells the tragic story of a courtesan who sacrificed herself for her lover. The picture is part of a group of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> of a woman at her dressing table and was originally published simply as <i>Girl at Her Toilet</i>.  It is not clear whether Beardsley intended it from the outset to be a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of Madeleine Gautier, but it appears to relate to an earlier drawing of 1890, which is inscribed with the title of Dumas's novel and bears some resemblance to this work in the silhouetted figure and treatment of the draperies. Beardsley may have identified with Madeleine Gautier, since, like her, he suffered from tuberculosis and would eventually also die of the disease.

</p><p>The leitmotif of a woman admiring herself in a mirror recalls the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82), which Beardsley would have known.  He may also have had in mind the work of Edgar Degas (1834-1917), who devoted much of his later career to pictures of woman at their toilet. Like many of Beardsley's drawings of this period the picture is highly stylised. A solid black mass envelops the lower half of the room and seems about to consume the figure.  Her arms have disappeared altogether, and her face is barely revealed above the extravagant collar of her frilly overcoat.  The influence of Japanese <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/woodcut" title="Glossary definition for 'Woodcut'"><span>woodcuts</span></a>, which Beardsley collected, is apparent in the broad flat areas of colour and the use of silhouette. The most carefully realised passages in the drawing are the objects on the dressing table and the floral pattern of the wallpaper, which depicts either roses or camellias. The woman's profile reveals dark shadows under the narrowed eyes and a turned down mouth, giving the impression of either illness or dissipation.  However, in general, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/realism" title="Glossary definition for 'Realism'"><span>realism</span></a> and individuality are suppressed in favour of surface pattern and overall design.

</p><p>The drawing was first published in the journal <i>St Paul's </i>on 2 April 1894,<i> </i>and at the time it was one of Beardsley's most popular works.  Six months later it was illustrated with the present title in Volume Three of <i>The Yellow Book</i>, an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/avant-garde" title="Glossary definition for 'Avant-garde'"><span>avant-garde</span></a> journal of which Beardsley was art editor. Between 1894 and 1897 Beardsley added <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> washes of pinkish-purple to the drawing, reducing the clarity of the image.

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Brian Reade, <i>Aubrey Beardsley</i>, London 1967,  revised edition, 1987, p.341, no.322, reproduced pl.323.<br/>Catherine Slessor, <i>The Art of Aubrey Beardsley</i>, London 1989, p.59, reproduced p.61.<br/>Simon Wilson, <i>Aubrey Beardsley: A Centenary Tribute</i>, exhibition catalogue, Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa 1998, p.240, no.121, reproduced p.150.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>7 December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">The title of this illustration comes from </span><span class="text14">the celebrated French novel by Alexander</span><span class="text0"> Dumas II about a generous-hearted courtesan who sacrifices herself      for her lover. Beardsley shared a similar fate to the courtesan, suffering      from tuberculosis that would eventually kill him. However, this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a>      must also </span><span class="text15">be considered as one of a series of </span><span class="text0">fetishistic pictures Beardsley made of </span><span class="text14">women preparing themselves at their dressing table. As a depiction      of self-contemplation, in the cut-off mirror, it also suggests the theme of      narcissism. </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-09-09T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04608</b> LA DAME AUX CAMéLIAS 1894
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Indian ink, later tinted with watercolour, 11×7 1/8 (28×18).
<br/>Presented by Colonel James Lister Melvill at the request of his brother Harry Edward Melvill 1931.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Miss K. Savile Clarke (Mrs Cyril Martineau); Harry Melvill.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Vallance in <i>Fifty Drawings</i>, 1897, p.206, repr. facing p.131; Vallance in Ross, 1909, p.92, No.89 xxi; Macfall, 1928, p.54.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Early Work</i>, 1899, pl.66 (without colouring); <i>Later Work</i>, 1920 ed., pl.27 (without colouring); John Rothenstein, <i>The Artists of the 1890's</i>, 1928, frontispiece; <i>Best of Beardsley</i>, 1948, No.31 (without colouring); <i>L'Oeil</i>, No.90, June 1962, p.31.</p>
<p>Published in the third number of <i>The Yellow Book</i>, October 1894, p.50; written on the back is ‘Yellow Book Immediate/today’. It had already appeared in <i>St Paul's</i>, 2 April 1894, as ‘Girl at her Toilet’. The present title refers to the play of that name by Alexandre Dumas fils. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> must have been coloured by 1897 when it was reproduced in <i>Fifty Drawings</i>.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY