Ink on paper
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<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>
Fat Woman
Presented by Colonel James Lister Melvill at the request of his brother, Harry Edward Melvill 1931
actions: postures and motions
adults
bar
bottle
caricature
clothing and personal items
diseases and conditions
drink, wine
drinking
eating and drinking
fine arts and music
food and drink
furnishings
glass
glove
hat
individuals: female
interiors
kitchen
leisure and pastimes
named individuals
obesity
objects
people
picture
places of entertainment
portraits
sitting
social comment
society
table
vessels and containers
Whistler, Beatrice
woman
<p>This design is partly based on Degas’s Absinthe, a depiction of the ravages of alcohol which caused outrage when it was exhibited at the Grafton Galleries in 1893. However, where Degas’s woman is wasted and downcast, Beardsley’s is plump and assertive. It was thought at the time that she was a caricature of Whistler’s wife, Trixie, whom Beardsley considered to be as arrogant as her husband. The setting is probably the Café Royal in London which was then a favourite haunt of avant-garde artists and writers.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 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
19 May 2014 – 10 August 2014
2014-08-10
19 May 2014 – 10 August 2014
2014-08-10
2014-05-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-05-19
Kenneth Clark
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
The Fat Woman
support: 178 × 162 mm
frame: 550 × 367 × 21 mm
Presented by Colonel James Lister Melvill at the request of his brother, Harry Edward Melvill 1931
<div class="text">
<p>This drawing of a woman seated at a café table is reminiscent of the low-life café scenes of the Impressionists, Degas and Manet. Beardsley was fascinated by the uproar caused by Degas’s <i>L’Absinthe</i> (1875-6, Musée d’Orsay) when it was exhibited at the Grafton Galleries in February 1893. However, <i>The Fat Woman</i> is far more witty and executed with astonishing panache and economy of line.  </p>
<p>The setting is almost certainly the Café Royal in London, a favourite haunt of artists and writers. As in Manet’s <i>Bar at the Folies-Bergère</i> (1882, Courtauld Institute, London), the interior is reflected in the mirror behind the woman, its relative detail contrasting with the abstracted forms of the rest of the picture. The woman herself is a perfect example of the ‘demi-mondaines’ who appear in Beardsley’s art of this period, which featured actresses, dancers, singers, courtesans and women of the night. The drawing is said to be a caricature of Beatrice Whistler, the wife of the artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), who had offended Beardsley by failing to take him seriously and subsequently snubbing him. It was destined for publication in the first volume of the avant-garde journal <i>The Yellow Book</i> (15 April 1894) but was refused by the publisher, John Lane, who feared recriminations from Whistler. Writing to Lane in his characteristically melodramatic way, Beardsley went so far as to say that he would take his own life ‘if the <i>Fat Woman</i> does not appear in No.1 of <i>The Yellow Book </i>… I shall hold demonstrations in Trafalgar Square’ (quoted in Clark 1979, p.96). In the same letter Beardsley said, ‘The picture shall be called A Study in Major Lines’ (quoted in Wilson, p.239), a clear parody of the title which Whistler gave to his own paintings.</p>
<p>Despite its small scale, the picture is classically composed and yet boldly modern in conception.<br/>The influence of Japanese prints is evident in the picture’s economy of line, flattened forms and bold silhouettes, as well as the series of arabesques forming the woman’s flamboyant hat. It is hardly a flattering image and the woman almost has an air of malevolence, emphasised by the simplified forms and the claw-like hands thrust into the long black gloves.</p>
<p>Beardsley gave the drawing, inscribed on the back ‘à mon ami Will Rothenstein’, to his close friend and fellow artist, William Rothenstein, who returned it, recommending that it be destroyed. It was subsequently reproduced in <i>Today</i> on 21 May 1894.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Kenneth Clark, <i>The Best of Aubrey Beardsley</i>, London 1979, pp.96-7, reproduced p.97.<br/>Brian Reade, <i>Aubrey Beardsley</i>, London 1967, revised edition, 1987, p.342, no.325, reproduced pl.322<br/>Catherine Slessor, <i>The Art of Aubrey Beardsley</i>, London 1989, p.54, reproduced p.54.<br/>Simon Wilson, <i>Aubrey Beardsley: A Centenary Tribute</i>, exhibition catalogue, Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa 1998, p.239, no.118, reproduced p.146.</p>
<p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000</p>
</div>

Summary
2021-06-30T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="para2">
<span class="text6">This design is partly based on Degas’s Absinthe,      a depiction of the ravages of alcohol which caused outrage when it was      exhibited at the Grafton Galleries in 1893. However, where Degas’s      woman is wasted and downcast, Beardsley’s is plump and assertive. It      was thought at the time that she was 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/c/caricature" title="Glossary definition for 'Caricature'"><span>caricature</span></a> of Whistler’s wife,      Trixie, whom Beardsley considered to be as arrogant as her husband. The      setting is probably the Café Royal in London which was then a      favourite haunt 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/a/avant-garde" title="Glossary definition for 'Avant-garde'"><span>avant-garde</span></a> artists and writers.  </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04609</b> THE FAT WOMAN 1894
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. on reverse, ‘A mon ami Will Rothenstein Aubrey Beardsley fec. et don.’ and, over a caricature of a Queen Victoria penny stamp, ‘Received by Will Rothenstein’. Indian ink, 7×6 3/8 (17·75×16·25).
<br/>Presented by Colonel James Lister Melvill at the request of his brother Harry Edward Melvill 1931.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Sir William Rothenstein; ? returned to the artist; ...; Miss K. Savile Clarke (Mrs Cyril Martineau) by 1897; Harry Melvill.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Vallance in <i>Fifty Drawings</i>, 1897, p.208, repr. facing p. 135; E. R. and J. Pennell, <i>The Life of James McNeill Whistler</i>, 1908, II, p. 140; Vallance in Ross, 1909, p.87, No.83; Robert Speaight, <i>William Rothenstein: The Portrait of an Artist in his Time</i>, 1962, p.120.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Later Work</i>, 1901, pl.61; <i>Early Work</i>, 1920 ed., pl.138.</p>
<p>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/c/caricature" title="Glossary definition for 'Caricature'"><span>caricature</span></a> of Whistler's wife, first published in <i>To-Day</i>, 21 May 1894. Cf. ‘Waiting’, published in <i>Bon Mots</i>, 1893–4 (repr. Walker, 1923, No.27). Sir William Rothenstein, to whom 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> was given, was a close friend of the artist and had the use of his studio 1893–4. According to Speaight he returned the drawing to Beardsley, from whom his son Sir John Rothenstein states that it was subsequently stolen.</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
actions: postures and motions adults bar bottle caricature clothing and personal items diseases and conditions drinking drink, wine eating and drinking fine arts and music food and drink furnishings glass glove hat individuals: female interiors kitchen leisure and pastimes named individuals obesity objects people picture places of entertainment portraits sitting social comment society table vessels and containers Whistler, Beatrice woman