2-880-235 - Shirley Markham Collection/Heritage Images

Portrait of Himself, 1894. British artist and eccentric Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) depicts himself as a tiny figure in an enormous canopied bed. Inscription top left: 'Par les Dieux Jumeaux tous les Monstres ne sont pas en Afrique'. [By the twin Gods, not all monsters are in Africa], a reference to Beardsley's frail health due to tuberculosis. He was diagnosed at the age of seven, and knew that he would not live very long. Despite frequent bouts of ill-health, he produced well over a thousand drawings between 1893 and 1898. His decadent and erotic subject matter was frequently shocking and even pornographic. His brilliant career was cut short when he died, aged 25, in the South of France. 'From The Yellow Book, Vol. III. Compared to the pomposities in the Uffizi Gallery, this is a delightfully witty self-portrait', Published in "The Best of Beardsley" edited by R. A. Walker, [The Bodley Head, London, 1948]