Beardsley Praying Angel Bookmark

The elegant praying angel on this bookmark comes from a pen-and-ink border design by Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (British, 1872–1898) in The Met collection. One of hundreds of detailed ink drawings that Beardsley made to illustrate J. M. Dent’s 1893–94 edition of Thomas Malory’s 15th-century book, Le Morte d’Arthur, this particular design framed a tale of King Arthur’s piety in book seven, chapter one, titled, “How Beaumains Came to King Arthur’s Court and Demanded Three Petitions of King Arthur.” Beardsley evoked the chapter’s theme with angels rendered in a medievalist aesthetic, while the lilies, with their curvilinear stems, anticipate the style of Art Nouveau.