Illustration to Salome by Oscar Wilde 5
1906-1907
Aubrey Beardsley was the ultimate provocateur of the Art Nouveau movement, and this illustration for Oscar Wilde’s *Salome* is a perfect example of his wicked wit. A woman in a sweeping black-and-white gown is being attended to by a masked figure, creating a scene that feels like a decadent masquerade ball gone wrong. Beardsley created these controversial images when he was just a young man dying of tuberculosis, using stark black ink to shock Victorian sensibilities. In fact, the publisher was so worried about the erotic content that they forced Beardsley to censor his own work, though he cheekily hid naughty symbols in the intricate patterns anyway.
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