The Toilet, from The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope

In this drawing, Aubrey Beardsley illustrates an early scene in Alexander Pope’s satirical masterpiece <em>The Rape of the Lock</em> (1712) in which the heroine, Belinda, primps in her boudoir. Reflecting the poem’s emphasis on contrived rather than natural beauty, the drawing is densely layered with artifice. A view of an idyllic garden with a cupola-topped pavilion is glimpsed not through a window as it would first seem, but on a folding screen. The bejeweled bottles littering the table serve as emblems of Belinda’s vanity.