Rare Book of Illustrations on Exhibit in South Carolina

The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston borrowed a book from the Miller Library's Special Collections for its exhibit, "Something Terrible May Happen: The Art of Aubrey Beardsley and Edward Ned I.R. Jennings."

Photo Credit: MCG Photography

Visitors to the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina, will discover a book from Washington College’s Special Collections in their current exhibit, Something Terrible May Happen: The Art of Aubrey Beardsley and Edward Ned I.R. Jennings. The museum contacted Miller Library to request a loan of the College’s copy of Beardsley’s A Second Book of Fifty Drawings from the Oversized Rare Book collection. 

The museum was particularly interested in a self-portrait of the famed artist, whose better-known works include The Peacock Skirt, an illustration from Oscar Wilde’s play Salome. According to the museum, Beardsley’s signature style was influenced by Japanese woodcuts, and his illustrations verged on caricatures and reflected the decadence of the time, sometimes veering into grotesque erotica satirizing the Victorian view of sex. Beardsley illustrated numerous stories in the magazines he co-founded, including The Savoy and The Yellow Book, and much of Oscar Wilde’s work.  

The museum notes that Wilde, then the poster boy of the inherently queer British Aestheticism Movement, visited Charleston in 1882. The Gibbes describes the exhibit as expanding on the lasting influence of “aesthetic fever” as it relates to Charleston’s visual arts specifically. Recontextualizing the work of Charleston Renaissance artist Edward “Ned” I.R. Jennings and examining the stylistic affinity of his work to British aesthete and illustrator Beardsley, Something Terrible May Happen explores the queer influences on the Charleston Renaissance and one of its most original artists. Beardsley’s book is featured prominently and will remain on loan through the end of March 2024.