ID 1362939
Lot 83 | BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (1872-1898)
Estimate value
£ 4 000 – 6 000
Cabinet photograph signed ('Aubrey Beardsley') and inscribed to André Raffalovich, [Bournemouth, July 1896 - April 1897]
The image by W.J. Hawker, Bournemouth, 144 x 92mm, mounted on photographer's card, 163 x 106mm, framed and glazed. Signed by Beardsley on the lower right corner of the image, and by the photographer on the verso. Provenance: Philip S. Burns – auction of his Aubrey Beardsley collection, Sotheby's, 19 November 1999, lot 117 – Barry Humphries (1934-2023).
The dying Beardsley, inscribed to his patron. Beardsley had settled in Bournemouth in July 1896, seeking some respite from his lifelong tuberculosis, then in its terminal phase: he remained until April 1897, having converted to Roman Catholicism on 31 March: he had only 11 months to live. The recipient of the photograph is Beardsley's patron, Marc-André Raffalovich (1864-1934), 'a rich, homosexual, thirty-year-old aesthete who became Beardsley's friend and mentor and helped him with money' (ODNB). Raffalovich is a signficant writer on homosexuality: his Uranisme et unisexualité: étude sur différentes manifestations de l'instinct sexuel was published in 1896.
| Artist: | Aubrey Beardsley (1872 - 1898) |
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| Place of origin: | England, Northern Europe, Europe, United Kingdom |
| Auction house category: | Letters, documents and manuscripts, Books and manuscripts |
| Artist: | Aubrey Beardsley (1872 - 1898) |
|---|---|
| Place of origin: | England, Northern Europe, Europe, United Kingdom |
| Auction house category: | Letters, documents and manuscripts, Books and manuscripts |
| Address of auction |
CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London United Kingdom | |
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| Phone | +44 (0)20 7839 9060 | |
| Buyer Premium | see on Website | |
| Conditions of purchase | Conditions of purchase |












