Design for a Theatre Poster: Florence Farr's Production of Bernard Shaw's "Arms and The Man"
Aubrey Beardsley (Brighton 1872 – Menton, France 1898)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1894
Materials
Pen, brush and Indian ink, with traces of pencil, on cartridge paper adhered to strawboard
Measurements
743 x 254 mm (29 1/4 x 10 in)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire
NT 1274672
Summary
An elongated black and white drawing by Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) depicts a woman with bare shoulders and long hair, suggestively peering through thin curtains decorated with polka dots. The original pen and ink drawing for the pictorial part of a poster designed by Beardsley, which was used to advertise Bernard Shaw’s play Arms and the Man when it was first performed in 1894.
Full description
The original pen and ink drawing for the pictorial part of a poster designed by Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), which was used to advertise Bernard Shaw’s play Arms and the Man when it was first performed in 1894. The drawing was commissioned from Beardsley by the actor-manager Florence Farr (Shaw’s lover at the time), who as manager for the season at the Avenue Theatre in London, wanted a poster to promote the inaugural performances of John Todhunter’s A Comedy of Sighs, and W.B. Yeats’s The Land of Heart’s Desire. Shaw’s new play Arms and the Man had been her first choice, however it was not ready in time. When Todhunter’s play failed, Farr telegrammed Shaw and he promptly put the finishing touches on Arms and the Man. Shaw’s play was a great success, and Farr played the part of the fiery maidservant Louka. Shaw is shown at rehearsals in April 1894 in a painting by the artist Bernard Partridge (who as the actor “Bernard Gould” played the part of Sergius Saranoff in Arms and the Man), and a print after the portrait is displayed nearby. Beardsley’s tall, narrow black and white drawing depicts a woman with bare shoulders suggestively peering through thin curtains decorated with polka dots. As art historian Stephen Calloway argues, the drawing is typical of Beardsley’s work, the “image plays games with pubic conventions of decency”, and shocked London audiences who were able to see the poster displayed everywhere. (Stephen Calloway and Susan Owens, ‘A ‘lost’ Beardsley drawing rediscovered’, Apollo, The National Trust Historic Houses and Collections, vol.153, no.470, April 2001, pp.49-54). “Punch” magazine parodied Beardsley’s design with reference to Shaw’s play, calling it “Shoulders and the Woman”. (See Calloway and Owens, ‘A 'lost' Beardsley rediscovered’, p.53). This subversive element would certainly have appealed to Shaw, as it did to Beardsley. Although Shaw is often portrayed as a Fabian ascetic, he possessed many traits of the aesthete, and admired artists and writers associated with Aestheticism, such as Beardsley, Oscar Wilde, and James McNeill Whistler. Shaw met Beardsley through his friendship with the photographer Frederick H. Evans, and in 1896 he published his essay “On Going to Church” in the periodical The Savoy, which achieved notoriety partly owing to Beardsley’s illustrations. Shaw later used Beardsley as one of the models for his artist character Louis Dubedat, in his play The Doctor’s Dilemma (1906). Many of Shaw’s friends attended the first night of Arms and the Man at the Avenue Theatre in 1894, and Beardsley himself was there with the artist William Rothenstein, who recalled that they laughed “frequently” and “heartily”: “Beardsley and I were at the first night of Shaw’s Arms and the Man, for which Beardsley designed the poster. We were both ardent admirers of Shaw, and followed the play intently.” (See Calloway and Owens, ‘A 'lost' Beardsley rediscovered’, p.54). Beardsley’s design was also used on the cover of the programme for Arms and the Man. (Mander and Mitchenson, Theatrical Companion to Shaw: A Pictorial Record of the First Performances of the Plays of George Bernard Shaw, p.37). An inscription on a label attached to the back of the drawing reads: “property of Florence Farr/price 60 guineas” referring to Farr's house contents sale before her departure for India in 1912. Shaw purchased the drawing at this sale. Photographs taken by Shaw at his London flat at Adelphi Terrace show the drawing there in about 1915. (For example NT 1715309.32). When Shaw was asked by the London shop Harrods many years later to write an advertisement for the store in 1929, he proudly cited the Beardsley poster as a good example of the links between the worlds of art and commerce (Shaw, ‘Bernard Shaw and Harrods’, The Observer, 3 March, 1929). Shaw claimed that copies of the playbill were ‘now much sought after by collectors’, and he permitted the bookshop Foyles to offer for sale a number of ‘proof’ prints of the image from the original in his collection. (Calloway and Owens, ‘A 'lost' Beardsley rediscovered’, 54, note 30). Shaw subsequently placed the Beardsley drawing next to the Hollyer portrait of William Morris in his study at the Whitehall Court flat, discernible in a press photograph of 1934. (Photograph of Shaw’s study at Whitehall Court by Alexander Stewart [“Sasha”], 1934. Getty Images 3311218). Shaw eventually had the drawing transferred to Shaw’s Corner in 1945 when he was rearranging the interiors prior to the opening of the house by the National Trust. He positioned the Beardsley next to the doorway, however it has since been moved out of direct light for conservation reasons. (Alice McEwan, 2020)
Provenance
Commissioned by Florence Farr in 1894. Purchased by Bernard Shaw at Farr's sale in 1912 for 60 guineas (note on label on backboard); thence among Shaw's possessions at the Shaws’ London residences until 1945 when brought to Shaw’s Corner. The Shaw Collection. The house and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust by George Bernard Shaw in 1950, together with Shaw's photographic archive.
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: On original backboard "AVENUE POSTER / by Aubrey Beardsley 1894./ Property of Florence Farr/ Price 60 guineas. Verso: manuscript note on a label: Design...Aubrey Beardsley Verso: Auction lot number 1570 [Farr sale, 1912] Recto: On uncut margins are visible pin-pricks, caused during block-making process
Makers and roles
Aubrey Beardsley (Brighton 1872 – Menton, France 1898), designer
References
National Book League (Great Britain), Bernard Shaw:, 1946?, p.40 Maas, Duncan and Good 1970 Henry Maas, J. L. Duncan and W. G. Good (eds.), The Letters of Aubrey Beardsley, London, 1970, p, 63 Calloway and Owen 2001 "A 'lost' Beardsley drawing re-discovered", Apollo, April 2001, pp 49-54, fig. 2