OBJECTS Femme fatale Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898) Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898) Salome, 1894 Illustrations for the eponymous drama by Oscar Wilde Beardsley published his first drawing with the motif of Salome holding the head of John the Baptist in 1893 in the magazine The Studio. The illustration attracted the interest of Oscar Wilde himself, who entrusted the young talented draughtsman with the creation of illustrations to accompany the English edition of the play in 1894. Beardsley’s Salome combined the unbridled undulating movement of the Art Nouveau line with the decadent archetype of attractive and dangerous female beauty – the period image of the “femme fatale”, cruelly playing with male emotions.