Books

Aubrey Beardsley

A Man of Letters 1894.

William Rothenstein 1872 - 1945.
Lithograph. 12.5 x 9.3 cm.
Signed in the stone “Rothenstein, Paris ’94.”

Published in an edition of two copies, for distribution to the poet's friends and admirers. Originally drawn at Soames's request as a frontispiece for his intended, though then, as yet, un-named book of verses, the image seems unduly flattering in the way it suggests both a health and a repose unlikely from what we know of the poet's rather more febrile character.
    Muddiman in The Men of the Nineties, his study of the fin-de-siècle, referred to “Will Rothenstein's lithographs, which are an absolute necessity to any one who would live a while with the shades of these men.”