The Climax (illustration)

[6][7] Wilde, one of the most influential members of the "Decadence", commissioned Beardsley to illustrate the English version of his play, which resulted in The Climax, The Stomach Dance, and The Eyes of Herod, in which women are attributed with traditionally male vices of lust, desire to dominate, and materialism.

Stylistically, it was more advanced, and it was drawn with more conventional page proportions, as compared to the J'ai baisé ta bouche Iokanaan version made with an elongated upright format.

[2][8] First published in 1894,[2] The Climax consists of strong, precise lines, decorative motifs characteristic of the developing Art Nouveau style, and the use of only black ink.

[13] Composing the background behind these two figures is a white quarter section of the moon[7] and a stylized depiction of peacock feathers, a signature motif in Beardsley's illustrations, made of concentric circles.

His thick black lines fused the graphical ideas of the past with the techniques and subject matter of a new age just on the horizon.

[4] Art historian Kenneth Clark said that it "aroused more horror and indignation than any graphic work hitherto produced in England.

Then, Stuart Whitehurst, an appraiser, auctioneer and art nouveau devotee, found The Climax and A Platonic Lament, another Beardsley drawing, hanging in the bathroom of a Bostonian who said he had inherited them from his grandmother and did not know of their significance.