BEARDSLEY, Aubrey (illus.); MALORY, Sir Thomas.

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Morte Darthur. First Beardsley edition, one of 1,500 copies on ordinary paper, and scarce with the cloth in such bright condition. This was Beardsley's first major commission and the book that launched the "Beardsley look" (Gillon, p. IV).In 1892, seeking to emulate the books of the Kelmscott Press, John M. Dent commissioned the 20-year-old Beardsley to produce this edition, work that took the young artist 18 months to complete. "In Le Morte d'Arthur Beardsley learnt his job, but the result is no bungling student's work... If he had never illustrated another book, this edition of Morte d'Arthur could stand as a monument of decorative book illustration" (Lewis, pp. 148-9). The work was first published in 12 monthly magazine instalments between June 1893 and mid-1894 to some controversy. "Often shockingly overt in their sexuality and eroticism, the illustrations rejected the aesthetic of the Pre-Raphaelites who were Beardsley's original mentors and offered a revisionist and parodic treatment of their medievalism. Ultimately, Beardsley went far beyond his original intention to 'flabbergast the bourgeois' of his day; he also challenged generations of readers and artists to view Arthurian society through his own modernist lens" Tepa Lupack, Chapter 4). La Morte Darthur was an immediate sensation upon publication.Provenance: Robert, or Robin, Henri Louis-Charles de Beaumont (1926-2023), with his bookplate on the front pastedown of each volume. De Beaumont was an architect and later

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