Child 

Aubrey Beardsley made this work, titled 'Child', using monochrome lines to create form, with much of the image dissolving into a textural background. The figure emerges from the shadowy washes, her form loosely defined. The sketch seems to be unfinished, yet within the context of Beardsley’s interest in decadence, this aesthetic might itself be the point. He destabilizes traditional ideas of beauty and finish, suggesting a world of partial forms and ambiguous meanings. The child's placid expression and closed eyes add to the sense of incompleteness, and perhaps also suggest a state of dreaming or internal reflection. Note how the lines create a semiotic system of signs: the curls of hair, the contours of the face, and the suggestion of a dress all work together to form a portrait. The background texture, however, destabilizes a clear reading, pushing against fixed meanings to engage with new ways of thinking about representation.