Lines on Pictures

Verse inscribed on a proof of the unexpurgated version of the Salome illustration “Enter Herodias”

Because one figure was undressed
This little drawing was suppressed.
          It was unkind—
          But never mind—
Perhaps it was all for the best.

 

¶ 1894. Beardsley’s illustrations to Oscar Wilde’s Salome were published in 1894. These lines, inscribed on a proof copy of the unexpurgated version of one of the most contentious of the pictures he executed, were sent by Beardsley to his friend Alfred Lambart.