Item 9: Sudden Appearance of Mr. Beerbohm in the New English Art Club (1909)

Julie Carlsen: Max Beerbohm loved to draw himself, and in this caricature, we can see a really classic example of how he did that. He is, of course, dressed to the nines in a suit. He has his very classic big head, almost baby-like face, and it just tapers into this very tiny body with legs that come down into a point. It's an exaggeration of his smallness.

I think Max uses size in his caricatures to emphasize his point. So, when he's lampooning Oscar Wilde for his behavior before his arrest, he depicts Oscar as just really large, really terrible-looking—kind of to show that he was inflated with his sense of self, and inflated by his gluttony.

But Max is always small. Max is always small and always slightly infantile. And part of that is, I think, a way of self-protection. You know, he had an acid pen; he went to the heart of people's faults. And whether it was their big nose, their inflated sense of self—you know, he didn't hold back. He's pushing the buttons of famous people who may wield their power against him.

He says in one of the letters in this exhibition that “my gifts are small.” This is how he defends his writing. And in some ways, when you see this sort of repeated image, this small Max—how can you be mad at him? His gifts are small. He's just doing what he can.