The Toilet, from The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope
Aubrey Beardsley (British, 1872–1898)
c. 1895–96
Medium
pen and black ink with traces of graphite underdrawing
Dimensions
25.6 × 17.4 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Dudley P. Allen Fund
Accession Number
1953.136
Tags
male
About this 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 emblem...