Ink on paper
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
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>
Design Yellow Book VolI
Bequeathed by John Lane 1926
actions: expressive
adults
body
candle
carnival
clothing and personal items
decadence
hat
head / face
heating and lighting
laughing
leisure and pastimes
man
mask
music and entertainment
objects
people
smiling
social comment
society
woman
<p>In 1894 Beardsley was appointed art editor of what he described as a 'new literary and artistic quarterly' aimed at artists and writers who 'cannot get their best stuff accepted in the conventional magazines'. All the cover designs were printed in black on yellow cloth boards, in imitation of French novels. This design for the first number shows a pair of masked carnival-goers who, in keeping with the subversive character of the journal, appear both lewd and sinister. From the start the new magazine provoked an outcry. The Times remarked on the 'repulsiveness and insolence' of the first cover.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2004</em></p>
paper unique ink
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
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
5 April 2017 – 1 October 2017
2017-10-01
5 April 2017 – 1 October 2017
2017-10-01
2017-04-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2017-04-05
Queer British Art
Exhibition
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
8 May 2023 – 5 May 2025
2025-05-05
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-05-08
Gallery 6
Collection based display
Cover Design for ‘The Yellow Book’ Vol.I
support: 260 × 216 mm
frame: 503 × 375 × 20 mm
Bequeathed by John Lane 1926
<p>This is Beardsley's design for the front cover of the first edition of <i>The Yellow Book</i>, a progressive journal of the arts, first published in 1894.  The idea for a more enlightened publication, open to <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> ideas, was first formulated by Beardsley and his friend Henry Harland (1861-1905), an American writer who came to London in 1889.  Beardsley and the artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) then took the idea to John Lane, who agreed to act as publisher.  Henry Harland was appointed literary editor and Beardsley art editor. 

</p><p>From the outset Beardsley aimed to be subversive and his artistic contributions not only gave the journal its distinctive character, but established its <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/decadence" title="Glossary definition for 'Decadence'"><span>decadent</span></a> reputation. The design for the first cover shows a pair of masked carnival-goers, and the sense of gaiety may owe something <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/iconography" title="Glossary definition for 'Iconography'"><span>iconographically</span></a> to the posters of the French artist Jules Chéret (1836-1932).  However, in spite of the woman's laughter, the couple appears distinctly sinister. Suggestions of lewd behaviour are implicit in the man's furtive expression and sickly smile, and in the woman's air of sensual depravity. Together they call to mind the bacchanalian revelry of Venetian carnivals.

</p><p>All the cover designs were printed in black on yellow cloth boards, in imitation of French novels. Beardsley's first design introduced a new illustrative style, distinguished by its flattening 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/p/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a>, stylisation of forms and bold application of dots. He specialised throughout this period in the interplay of areas of pure white with large masses of black. Here, for example, he creates the woman's enormous hat from a narrow line of white, where 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/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> remains uncoloured, within a uniform expanse of black. 

</p><p>When <i>The Yellow Book</i> was first published, in April 1894, the <i>Times</i> referred to the 'repulsiveness and insolence' of the first cover and went on to describe it as 'a combination of English rowdyism and French lubricity' (quoted in Slessor, p.53). Oscar Wilde, excluded from contributing to the first edition, commented on its depiction of 'a terrible naked harlot smiling through a mask, and with Elkin Matthews written on one breast and John Lane on the other' (letter from Max Beerbohm to Mr Holbrook, quoted in Lord David Cecil, <i>Max</i>, London 1964, p.321). Indeed, when the volume was published with its distinctive yellow cover, the names of the two publishers were placed exactly where the woman's breasts would have been if the picture had been continued to the bottom of the page.  

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Brian Reade, <i>Aubrey Beardsley</i>, revised edition, London 1987, p.344, no.343, reproduced pl.344.<br/>Catherine Slessor, <i>The Art of Aubrey Beardsley</i>, London 1989, pp.50-5, reproduced p.53.<br/>Simon Wilson, <i>Aubrey Beardsley: A Centenary Tribute</i>, exhibition catalogue, Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa 1998, p.239, no.117, reproduced p.143.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="para2">
<span class="text14">In 1894 Beardsley was appointed art editor</span><span class="text6"> </span><span class="text15">of what he described as a 'new      literary </span><span class="text14">and artistic quarterly' aimed at      artists and</span><span class="text6"> </span><span class="text15">writers      who 'cannot get their best stuff </span><span class="text6">accepted in the      conventional magazines'. </span><span class="text14">All the cover designs      were printed in black</span><span class="text6"> </span><span class="text15">on yellow cloth boards, in imitation of French novels. This design      for the first </span><span class="text14">number shows a pair of masked      carnival-goers who, in keeping with the subversive character of the      journal, appear both lewd </span><span class="text15">and sinister. From      the start the new </span><span class="text14">magazine provoked an outcry. </span><span class="text13">The Times</span><span class="text14"> </span><span class="text15">remarked on the 'repulsiveness and insolence' of the first cover.       </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-02-10T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04171</b> COVER DESIGN FOR THE YELLOW BOOK 1894
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. with Japanesque mark (three candles) b.r.
<br/>Pencil and Indian ink, 10 1/4×8 1/2 (26×22).
<br/>Bequeathed by John Lane 1926.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> John Lane.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> (?) Carfax Gallery, October 1904 (34 or 36: cover designs for <i>The Yellow Book</i> lent by John Lane); (?) Chicago, 1911 (35, 36 or 49: cover designs for <i>The Yellow Book</i> lent by John Lane); Brooklyn, December 1923–January 1924 (37).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Vallance in <i>Fifty Drawings</i>, 1897, p.206; Vallance in Ross, 1909, p.91, No.89 ii.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Early Work</i>, 1899, pl.45; <i>Later Work</i>, 1920 ed., pl.6; <i>Best of Beardsley</i>, 1948, No.17.</p>
<p>The design for the cover of the first number of <i>The Yellow Book</i>, published by Elkin Mathews and John Lane in April 1894; Beardsley was art editor of the first four numbers and it was this that made his name (see Macfall, 1928, p.59).</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
2004-07-20T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive adults body candle carnival clothing and personal items decadence hat head / face heating and lighting laughing leisure and pastimes man mask music and entertainment objects people smiling social comment society woman