[GLEESON WHITE, Joseph (editor).] The Studio. Volume II Number 7. Special Arts and Crafts Number.

Medieval Revival & Bourgeois Complacency

[GLEESON WHITE, Joseph (editor).] The Studio. Volume II Number 7. Special Arts and Crafts Number. London: B.T. Batsford. 16 October 1893.

Large 8vo. Publisher’s green printed wrappers, design to front wrapper by Aubrey Beardsley and printed Liberty advertisements to rear wrapper; pp. iv (advertisements), 38, v–x (advertisements); numerous black-and-white in-text illustrations; minor wear to wrappers; very well preserved; contemporary ownership inscription ‘L. Symington’ to front wrapper.

The special arts and crafts issue of The Studio, featuring a cover design by Aubrey Beardsley; the inaugural issue (April 1893) had featured a piece on Beardsley called ‘A New Illustrator’ by Joseph Pennell, bringing the twenty-one-year-old artist’s work to a wider audience.

This issue featured contributions by Aymer Vallance, who would be the first to produce a listing of Beardsley’s works, as well as a feature on the fourth Arts and Crafts Exhibition, held from October to December 1893 and featuring works by William Morris, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Ford Madox Brown, Walter Crane, and others.

‘Beardsley had designed the Studio’s cover and partly fashioned its graphic identity, drawing from it lessons for the art and literature reviews he would later direct. In turn, the Studio showcased an artist representative of two fields it clearly defined as its own and in contrast to the hierarchies of the art establishment, that is, the fine and applied arts. Their double passport, however, is based on what could be described as safe aesthetic choices [...] the periodical championed a medieval-inspired style and design that was fashionable rather than forward-looking. Indeed, medievalism was more associated with bourgeois complacency than the daring and provocative images that Beardsley was already developing’ (Stead).

Gertner Zatlin 308b; Cf. Reade 259; see Stead, Grotesque and Performance in the Art of Aubrey Beardsley (2024).

SKU: 2124795