Quis Custodiet Ipsum Custodem 1916

Curator: What an odd little gathering in Sir Max Beerbohm's "Quis Custodiet Ipsum Custodem," currently held in the Tate Collections. I can't help but be amused by the lamp's placement—it seems to be throwing light where it isn't needed, and casting shadows on the important parts. Editor: Yes, and it's all meticulously rendered with watercolor and pencil on paper, the labor clear despite the whimsical subject. Look at how he uses line to define form. Curator: It's like a fever dream populated by literary giants! The question mark of that title hanging over these fellows—it feels like a challenge to the viewer to decipher just what is transpiring here in this parlor. Editor: The wallpaper's design practically swallows the figures, and the oriental screen adds an element of artifice. Are these men aware of their role in the spectacle? Curator: Spectacle, indeed. It is almost as if Beerbohm is painting a critique of the very act of observing and judging, isn't it? Editor: Perhaps. Or it is the social milieu on display, how artistic and intellectual circles reproduce themselves through constant self-examination. Curator: Well, either way, I leave feeling as though I just walked into the middle of a very long, very clever joke. Editor: Agreed. A material record of a carefully constructed social world.