Savoy (cover of the magazine)

In the spring of 1895 Beardsley was left without a job. Because of the scandalous process over Oscar Wilde, the artist was removed from his post as art editor of the Yellow Book magazine, surprisingly attributing the artist homosexuality because of the illustrations that he made to Salome Wylde. The most insulting thing for Beardsley was that he was not even given the chance to defend himself and deny this decision. The publisher John Lane fired the artist while he was in France, and replaced his drawing on the cover of the new issue of the magazine. AT innocent in general image of a girl, sitting on the shore of the reservoir and listening as a faun reads her book, saw almost pornography. According to detractors, in the wool on the thighs of the satire Beardsley skillfully hid a huge genital organ.

At that time, a new friend, Leonard Smithers, came to help Beardsley. He found work for the artist and invited him to open his own magazine, which was decided to be called "Savoy" (in honor of the hotel in London). Beardsley accelerated his work on the "History of Venus and Tannhauser" to publish it in "Savoy", but Smithers advised him to remove the most frank erotic parts and change the name.

The covers for Savoy were painted, of course, by Beardsley himself. In the figure for the first number, he depicted a woman in a riding suit in a garden with lush vegetation. But the artist would not have been himself, had he not succumbed to the eternal temptation to shock and shock the public. To the majestic lady, he painted a nice cherub at the bottom of the drawing, which peed on a copy of the Yellow Book, thus, as if putting the final point in that scandalous story. Beardsley moved away from the usual technique, which he used at the previous place of work. He decorated the drawing with an abundance of details, carefully working out every detail, and with the help of shading tried to convey shades and semitones.

Author: Evgenia Sidelnikova