Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010996The Toilet, from The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope
Also known as: The Toilet
About the Artwork
In this drawing, Aubrey Beardsley illustrates an early scene in Alexander Pope’s satirical masterpiece The Rape of the Lock (1712) in which the heroine, Belinda, primps in her boudoir. Reflecting the poem’s emphasis on contrived rather than natural beauty, the drawing is densely layered with artifice. A view of an idyllic garden with a cupola-topped pavilion is glimpsed not through a window as it would first seem, but on a folding screen. The bejeweled bottles littering the table serve as emblems of Belinda’s vanity.
Provenance
?-1953: (R. A. Walker, Bedford, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) 1953-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (May 19-September 19, 1966); The Gallery of Modern Art, New York, NY (February 13-April 13, 1967). Aubrey Beardsley. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (December 11, 1967-March 4, 1968). From Block Books to Baskin: Artists as Illustrators. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 13-August 17, 1986). Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992). British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013). Fairy Tales and Fables: Illustration and Storytelling in Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 4-September 8, 2024).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Aubrey Beardsley (British, 1872–1898)
- Date
- c. 1895–96
- Medium
- pen and black ink with traces of graphite underdrawing
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 25.6 x 17.4 cm (10 1/16 x 6 7/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Accession no.
- 1953.136
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Open-access museum record · AT-00010996
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