This lithograph is one of the most celebrated images from Érotiques de Beardsley, a posthumous French edition published in Paris by Éditions Les Yeux Ouverts around the mid-20th century. The image illustrates a scene from Lysistrata, the ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, in which women withhold sexual relations to end war — a subject that allowed Beardsley to blend classical culture with explicit eroticism.
The composition shows Lysistrata rendered as an elegant, elongated figure in a protective, assertive stance. Beardsley’s use of sharp black line against white creates a graphic tension between vulnerability and power. The figure’s confident posture and the stylised decorative border are hallmarks of his mature illustrative style.
Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898) produced his Lysistrata series in 1896, commissioned by Leonard Smithers for a private edition. It remains one of the most audacious erotic series in the history of Western illustration. Beardsley rendered the sexual content with the same elegant detachment he applied to his more socially acceptable work — transforming obscenity into pure aesthetics.
Despite being created in the final years of his short life — he died of tuberculosis at 25 — these images show Beardsley at the height of his artistic confidence. The series influenced later erotic artists and graphic designers throughout the 20th century. This posthumous French edition speaks to the lasting prestige of Beardsley’s work in continental Europe.
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