Floral Tailpiece Designs for "The Duchess of Malfi" and "The White Devil"

Author Related author John Webster British

Publisher Related publisher John Lane, The Bodley Head British

ca. 1930

Not on view

Keen worked as a printmaker and illustrator in the 1920s and 1930s, creating unsettling symbolist images reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley. Two significant commissions were designs for luxury editions published by The Bodley Head–a firm that had launched Beardsley in the 1890s–Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray" (1925) and John Webster's "The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi" (1930). After Keen's early death from tuberculosis, The Twenty-One Gallery in London held a memorial exhibition.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Floral Tailpiece Designs for "The Duchess of Malfi" and "The White Devil"
Artist: Henry Weston Keen (British, 1899–1935 Walberswick, Suffolk)
Author: Related author John Webster (British, ca. 1580–ca. 1634)
Publisher: Related publisher John Lane, The Bodley Head (British, 1854–1925)
Date: ca. 1930
Medium: Pen and black ink
Dimensions: sheet: 15 1/4 x 11 7/8 in. (38.7 x 30.2 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1967
Object Number: 67.803.15
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Odalisque, Henry Weston Keen British, Lithograph — Odalisque
Henry Weston Keen
1925–30

Unused Tailpiece Design for "The Duchess of Malfi", Henry Weston Keen British, Pen and black ink — Unused Tailpiece Design for "The Duchess of Malfi"
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1930

Skull Crowned with Snakes and Flowers (for "The Duchess of Malfi"), Henry Weston Keen British, Pen and black ink, brush and wash — Skull Crowned with Snakes and Flowers (for "The Duchess of Malfi")
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1930

Spider, Web, Snake and Flowers (for "The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil"), Henry Weston Keen British, Pen and black ink — Spider, Web, Snake and Flowers (for "The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil")
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1930

The Ghost of Isabella (for "The White Devil," Act III, scene iii), Henry Weston Keen British, Pen and black ink and graphite — The Ghost of Isabella (for "The White Devil," Act III, scene iii)
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1930

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