2-880-240 - Shirley Markham Collection/Heritage Images

La Dame aux Camélias, 1894. Woman standing at a dressing table, wearing a voluminous white coat over an evening dress with peacock feather motifs. The title refers to the 1852 novel by Alexandre Dumas fils, the tragic story of Marguerite Gautier, a courtesan who sacrificed herself for her lover. Marguerite is dying of consumption, the disease from which Beardsley himself died in 1898. 'From The Yellow Book, Vol. III'. Published in "The Best of Beardsley" edited by R. A. Walker, [The Bodley Head, London, 1948]