Lot 328
328
FREDERICK H. EVANS (1853–1943)
On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial int… Read more
FREDERICK H. EVANS (1853–1943)

Double Portrait of Aubrey Beardsley, 1894

Details
FREDERICK H. EVANS (1853–1943)
Double Portrait of Aubrey Beardsley, 1894
one platinum print and one photogravure, together on layered mount
each blindstamped photographer's monogram (primary mount, recto); signed, titled and numbered ' - 20 sets only - 8' in ink on an affixed label (tertiary mount, verso)
platinum print [hands to face]:
image/sheet: 5 3/8 x 3 7/8 in. (13.6 x 9.8 cm.)
primary mount: 6 3/8 x 4 3/8 in. (16.2 x 11 cm.)
secondary mount: 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (16.5 x 11.4 cm.)

photogravure:
image/sheet: 4 7/8 x 3 3/4 in. (12.3 x 9.5 cm.)
primary mount: 5 7/8 x 4 1/4 in. (14.9 x 10.8 cm.)
secondary mount: 6 x 4 3/8 in. (15.2 x 11.1 cm.)

tertiary mount: 13 x 20 3/4 in. (33 x 52.7 cm.)
This work is number eight from an edition of twenty.
Provenance
Christie's, London, May 3, 1995, lot 63;
acquired from the above sale by the present owner.
Literature
Beaumont Newhall, Frederick H. Evans, Aperture, Millerton, 1973, p. 11 (one illustrated).
Malcolm Rogers, Camera Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1989, pl. 62, p. 141 (one illustrated).
Anne M. Lyden, The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans, Getty, Los Angeles, 2010, pl. 112, p. 141 (one illustrated).
Special notice
On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in the outcome of the sale of certain lots consigned for sale. This will usually be where it has guaranteed to the Seller that whatever the outcome of the auction, the Seller will receive a minimum sale price for the work. This is known as a minimum price guarantee. This is such a lot.

Lot Essay

The illustrator, Aubrey Beardsley, was a frequent visitor to Frederick H. Evans' bookshop on Queen Street, Cheapside, London. Eventually the two artists would become friends, leading to the sitting for this double portrait. In the monograph, Frederick Evans, Beaumont Newhall mentions the sitting and a friend of the two who remembered that Evans 'spent...hours wandering around the gaunt youth, wondering what on earth to do with him, when Beardsley, getting tired, relaxed and took the pose which Evans immediately seized' (The Photographic Journal, February, 1945, p. 36). Later the same year as these portraits, Beardsley wrote to Evans 'I think the photos are splendid; couldn't be better. I am looking forward to getting my copies'.

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