The collaboration between Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley would come to define a briefbut significant part of art history, the aesthetic movement. Its adherents subscribed to thetheory of art for art’s sake and believed in beauty over meaning. Art should be a part ofeveryday life and the aesthetic principles were adopted by writers, poets, artists anddesigners. Critics and viewers alike have described the artist’s drawings illustrating Saloméas feminist depictions of the fin de siècle woman; powerful and sexually liberated. Accordingto my argument, this is not the case. By placing the works in a historical context andconsidering factors such as class and gender it will become clear to the reader of this text asto why that is. Beardsley was a member of the artistic upper middle class and was thereforeexcluded from the strict sexual politics of the Victorian era, this is very evident in theillustrations of Salomé. The women in the drawings are not unconventional portrayals of thenew feminist but instead come off as crude caricatures – a way for the artist to shock theprude middle class.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-202222 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Brogno, Caterina |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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