Wilde Oscar

1893 · ref. #16 — Oscar Wilde Salomé. Drame en un acte. Paris Librairie de l'Art indépendant; London Elkin Mathews and John Lane 1893. Square 12mo 196 × 145 mm. 2 blank leaves 84 numbered pages the first 8 unnumbered: half-title title dedication to Pierre Louÿs list of characters; text beginning on p. 9 and 2 unnumbered leaves 1 leaf with the colophon dated 6 February 1893 and 1 blank leaf. Modern binding. Half black morocco with small corner pieces bluish paper sides smooth spine title in gilt untrimmed top edge with matte gilt doublures and endleaves of the same paper. Original violet wrappers and spine the upper cover printed in silver lettering preserved. Excellent condition. A few small spots; upper edges of the boards slightly faded; wrappers somewhat sunned. First edition. This celebrated play was written directly in French by Wilde between 1891 and 1892; first performed in 1896 its text was revised at the author's request by Marcel Schwob Stuart Merrill and Pierre Louÿs. The first English edition appeared the following year. Limited edition of 600 copies with no special issue on large paper. The second blank leaf bears the following autograph inscription signed in black ink: "À Puvis de Chavannes / Hommage respectueux / Oscar Wilde" To Pierre Puvis de Chavannes respectful homage Oscar Wilde. The celebrated painter and muralist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes 1824–1898 like Oscar Wilde 1854–1900 lived in the cult of Beauty. Renowned for his compositions of noble and hieratic character influenced both by Greco-Roman classicism and by Symbolism his work exerted a profound fascination on late nineteenth-century painters and sculptors particularly Edgar Degas Paul Gauguin Aristide Maillol and Maurice Denis. The aesthetic connection between Oscar Wilde and Puvis de Chavannes is to be sought precisely around Salomé since the artist had painted in 1869 a Beheading of Saint John the Baptist that may well have inspired the author. Moreover it is known that when Aubrey Beardsley—who would illustrate the English version of the play in 1894—came to Paris in 1893 he was strongly encouraged by the French painter who introduced him as "a young English artist who produces astonishing things." The inscription in Salomé is therefore particularly significant and of greater import than a simple tribute. A very fine provenance for this celebrated drama written directly in French by Oscar Wilde. Librairie de l’Art indépendant