"A Defence of Cosmetics" is an

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Abril Lamarque (1904–1999) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfre ...

and parodist

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, Parody, parodist and Caricature, caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the theatre crit ...

and published in the first edition of ''

The Yellow Book ''The Yellow Book'' was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by th ...

'' in April 1894. Aged 21 when the essay was published, it established his reputation. It later appeared in his first book, ''

The Works of Max Beerbohm ''The Works of Max Beerbohm'' was the first book published by English Caricature, caricaturist, essayist and Parody, parodist Max Beerbohm. It was published in 1896 when Beerbohm was aged 24. A collection of Beerbohm's essays from the 1890s writt ...

'' (1896) as "The Pervasion of Rouge". Written while still an

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

, Beerbohm intended that his essay "

A Peep into the Past "A Peep into the Past" is a 1923 unauthorized and privately printed essay on Oscar Wilde by caricaturist and parodist Max Beerbohm. Beerbohm wrote this satire on Oscar Wilde in late 1893 or early 1894 for publication in the first number of '' ...

", a satire on

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

, should be published in the first number of ''

'', but it was held over to make way for another essay, "A Defence of Cosmetics", which appeared in that journal in April 1894. "A Peep into the Past" was possibly withheld because of the impending Wilde scandal. When it was published, "A Defence of Cosmetics" was singled o" for vilification as "decadent", and subsequent issues of ''The Yellow Book'' containing his work were condemned by the establishment. Beerbohm contended that the use of make-up by women, and some men, was becoming the norm in the 1890s, and that the mask was becoming more important than the face. His essay claimed that: :"most women are not as young as they are painted... Cosmetics are not going to be a mere prosaic remedy for age or plainness, but all ladies and girls will come to love them...the season of the unsophisticated is gone by, and the young girl's final extinction beneath the rising tides of cosmetics will leave no gap in life and will rob art of nothing... Artifice, sweetest exile, is come into her kingdom." Sun-tan make-up was being used by "countless gentlemen who walk about town in the time of its desertion from August to October, artificially bronzed, as though they were fresh from the moors or the Solent. This, I conceive, is done for purely social reasons." The essay, an ironic defence of

Decadence Decadence was a late-19th-century movement emphasizing the need for sensationalism, egocentricity, and bizarre, artificial, perverse, and exotic sensations and experiences. By extension, it may refer to a decline in art, literature, science, ...

, created a sensation when it appeared in 1894. Delighted with the essay,

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Though he covered many subjects – ranging from landscapes in France to representations of Jewish synag ...

wrote to Beerbohm, "...all my friends chuckled over your dear cosmetics as they read & reread them. Oscar, solitary exception, was moved to a torrent of tears, so strong was his emotion". To

Lord Alfred Douglas Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 – 20 March 1945), also known as Bosie Douglas, was an English poet and journalist, and a lover of Oscar Wilde. At Oxford University he edited an undergraduate journal, ''The Spirit Lamp'', that carr ...

wrote: "Max on Cosmetics in the Yellow Book is wonderful: enough style for a large school, and all very precious and thought-out: quite delightfully wrong and fascinating". Wilde, appreciating Beerbohm's wise but ironic manner, commented that "The gods bestowed on Max the gift of perpetual old age".Beerbohm on the 'Mr Oscar Wilde' website
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References

External links

Turning the pages of ''A Defence of Cosmetics''
on Victorian Web
Mocking the Victorian Sages: Beerbohm's "A Defence of Cosmetics"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Defence of Cosmetics 1894 essays Works by Max Beerbohm Essays by Max Beerbohm Works originally published in The Yellow Book