{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O225831"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O225831/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD3044/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD3044/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PD3044","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O225831/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O225831","accessionNumber":"E.30-1996","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Portrait of Himself","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Line block print depicting the artist as a small figure in the centre of a large opulent bed. Only the face is visible underneath a large spotted nightcap, peeping around the bed curtains which are decorated with floral motifs and tassels.  Lettered in French in the top left corner: 'Par les dieux jumeaux tous les monstres ne sont pas en Afrique' [By the twin Gods, not all monsters are in Africa], in reference to the artist's frail health and the danger of tuberculosis. These are the opening lines from 'Le Pédant Joué' by Cyrano de Bergerac (1654).","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Aubrey Beardsley","id":"A8134"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Swan Electric Engraving","id":"A6821"},"association":{"text":"printer","id":"x30811"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Bodley Head","id":"AUTH323212"},"association":{"text":"publisher","id":"x32600"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"line-block","id":"x37720"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Line-block","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Books","id":"THES48986"},{"text":"Portraits","id":"THES48906"},{"text":"Illustration","id":"THES48938"},{"text":"Printed pages and sheets","id":"THES48904"},{"text":"Periodicals","id":"THES48913"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2025PD3044"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"I","shelf":"50","box":"H"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1894","earliest":"1894-01-01","latest":"1894-12-31"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"1899","earliest":"1899-01-01","latest":"1899-12-31"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"E.429-1899","id":"O128895"},"association":"Duplicate"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"27.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Size of sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"20.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Size of sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"16.45","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Size of image","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"10.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Size of image","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from <u>Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1996</u>","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This print is illustration no. 63 taken from a copy of <u>The early work of Aubrey Beardsley</u> <u>with a prefatory note by H.C. Marillier</u>, The Bodley Head, London - New  York, 1899. Only 120 copies were published in this Japanese vellum edition. It was first published as no.1 of <u>Four Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley</u> in <u>The Yellow Book</u>, volume III, October 1894, by John Lane, London and Copeland and Day, Boston. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Line block print by Aubrey Beardsley, self-portrait, printed 1899","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1996</u>"},{"reference":{"text":"Beardsley, Aubrey and H. C. Marillier. <u>The Early Work of Aubrey Beardsley</u>. London - New York: The Bodley Head, 1899.","id":"AUTH328649"},"details":"no. 63","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"<u>Four Drawings by <u>A</u></u><u>ubrey Beardsley</u>. <u>The Yellow Book</u>, volume III London: John Lane, 1894.","id":"AUTH328650"},"details":"no. 1","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Sturgis, Alexander, Rupert Christiansen, Lois Oliver and Michael Wilson <i>Rebels and Martyrs : The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century</i>. London : The National Gallery, 2006","id":"AUTH354726"},"details":"48","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"The following excerpt is from p. 103 of <i>Aubrey Beardsley: A Catalogue Raisonné, Volume II, </i>Linda Gertner Zatlin, Yale University Press, 2016:\r\n\r\n'Because the face in the drawing does not resemble Beardsley's, this design could illustrate the beginning of chapter seven of Venus and Tannhäuser when the Abbé awakens (Fletcher 1987, p. 150; Fletcher in Langenfeld 1989, p. 245). In addition to being a portrait, the image belongs to the tradition of the dreaming figure and could be an allusion to Fuseli's <i>Nightmare</i>, with Beardsley protected by a female Pan figure who is 'an integral part of his horrible dreams, asleep or awake' (Heyd 1986, pp.162-3).'"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Aubrey Beardsley","id":"N1773"},{"text":"","id":""}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"self-portrait","id":"AAT124534"},{"text":"","id":""}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.30-1996"],"accessionNumberNum":"30","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1996,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Previous number","id":"THES51695"},"number":"C.22198"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-07","recordCreationDate":"2009-04-20","availableToBook":false}}