The fin de siècle was a transition period in between the realist trends of the nineteenth century and the modernist styles of the twenties in which art flourished. Fin de siècle England produced some of the most iconic literary works known, such as The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and War of the Worlds, often written in the styles of decadence and aestheticism. Less celebrated, but no less important, are the periodical publications of the era that published and spread works by creators known and obscure.

Although its publication period was brief, the periodical the Yellow Book has received attention for featuring “some of the best and most representative literary art” (Weitraub 137) of the fin de siècle. Included in the first volume of the Yellow Book, one that was panned by critics but is now lauded, was an image called “The Old Oxford Music Hall”, a music hall painting created by Walter Sickert from 1888 to 1889 and reproduced for the publication’s April 1894 volume. Found in the April 1896 ninth volume of the Yellow Book, known as one of the worst in terms of quality (Weitraub 149), is a non-fiction essay called “On the Art of Yvette Guilbert” by Stanley V. Makower.

During the fin de siècle, music hall performers relied heavily on advertising to promote themselves. Both the performers and the advertisers benefited through a symbiotic relationship in that their great success and public attention depended on the other (Hindson 122). To the general public, female professional performers exuded a semi-mythological image (Hindson 129) through their advertisements that the public was able to consume through visits to the music hall. An individual, unmistakeable, and iconic image was necessary for the female performer to reinforce and create through promotional material. If the audience was taken to the female performer's persona and character, they could enjoy international success and celebrity status.

In Stanley V. Makower’s “On the Art of Yvette Guilbert”, much of the essay is used to discuss the strong admiration that Makower has of Guilbert and her art form. Makower writes, “[Guilbert’s individuality] is an individuality so marked, so rare, that it almost constitutes by its own force a development by itself, independent of a place in the history of its art, in the same way that the strength of Chopin’s individuality makes it almost impossible to put him into relation with other composers of music” (Makower 62). To say that Makower is a dedicated fan of Guilbert is perhaps an understatement, as he talks about Guilbert’s art with such intense and passionate language. However fervent Makower’s appreciation for Guilbert is, his essay is not the only case in which Guilbert is discussed with such favourable language to express admiration. In fact, there are many essays and reviews written in the 1890s and afterward which express a level of love for Guilbert similar to Makower’s. These writers often speak of her “genius” (Cumberland 517) art, her “infinite charm” (Simpson 172), and has been called “incomparable” (Jennings 574). To be frank, what Makower is writing of is not anything that has not been said already and will continue to be said about the talented Guilbert for the years following his essay’s publication in the Yellow Book.

Thus, although the Yellow Book seemed to draw many criticisms for being distasteful in its early years, “On the Art of Yvette Guilbert” is nothing revolutionary as the text falls in line with the writings of many of Makower’s contemporaries. Interestingly, Makower’s text is not even a review but simply an essay written in anticipation of Guilbert’s concert. This is not a reactionary text to some sort of event or news, but was written simply because Makower desired to write about it. There is nothing wrong with the text or Makower’s affinity for Guilbert, but the fact that the text was included in the Yellow Book, where the editors most likely sought out Makower as a contributor, is quite significant. While the Yellow Book is perhaps known for featuring works that present experimental art and ideas, “On the Art of Yvette Guilbert” reflects the opinions of the masses and subsequently is a text that would appeal to the masses. Thus, the inclusion of “On the Art of Yvette Guilbert” in the Yellow Book demonstrates that the magazine had a reflexive relationship to the popular culture of the era, despite its avant garde reputation.

Further, the setting displayed in Walter Sickert’s “The Old Oxford Music Hall” is one that is quite familiar. In the Yellow Book, Sickert offers a number of images which feature the Victorian music hall and other contributors offer numerous images of other celebrity performers that frequented the music hall and similar institutions like the theatre, such as Gabrielle Réjane and Ada Lundberg. Like the admiration expressed for Guilbert in Makower’s essay, the image of the music hall featured in Sickert’s “The Old Oxford Music Hall” was perhaps not an uncommon image.

During the 1890s, there were many female performers, like Yvette Guilbert, that frequented the music hall. However, not all of these female performers grew to have presences beyond the stage. Actually, the vast majority of female music hall performers would not grow to attain celebrity status as Guilbert did. A major contributor to making a female performer into a celebrity was the media of the time (Pendley-Hindson 110). Things such as articles, images, and interviews of and about the performer were prevalent in newspapers and magazines (Hindson 126). All of this press coverage worked to make the performer relevant in the cultural landscape. Perhaps, the inclusion of Makower’s text is an example of this essential pop culture propaganda. This is not to suggest that a publication such as the Yellow Book would sell its pages for publicity, but rather that in a time when publications and the cultural landscape was saturated with images of these celebrities and so perhaps Makower’s text mirrors that cultural landscape. This would reveal the extent to which the influence and image of the celebrity would reach, as a text which was assumed to be a sort of counterculture product would feature someone that is the product of the masses. This would also perhaps relate to Sickert’s “The Old Oxford Music Hall” as images of celebrities, the people who would perform in music halls, were even more common than texts.

Perhaps an argument that may be offered is that the Yellow Book has been noted to have declined in both contributors and readers over the years, especially following the expulsion of art editor Aubrey Beardsley. Despite the adverse critical reaction to the first few volumes of the Yellow Book and especially to Beardsley’s art editorship, contemporary scholars acknowledge that Beardsley’s art editorship contributed greatly to the high quality of the early issues of the Yellow Book. Perhaps if the earlier volumes reflected a higher quality avant garde taste, then later volumes, such as the one that Makower’s essay was included in, were lower quality and less avant garde and more pedestrian. Walter Sickert was published in the Yellow Book fifteen times, spanning the first five volumes of the Yellow Book, but never again after that. Evidently, earlier volumes of the Yellow Book were much more controversial to critics, as one reviewer had remarked that Sickert is merely “disguised as [an] artist” (“A Yellow Melancholy”). Clearly, this cold reception is indicative of the counter mainstream area that this particular issue of the Yellow Book was associated with. With such a frequency in appearances to be cut off following the issue after Beardsley’s termination, it is possible that the declining quality of the Yellow Book was reflected in the inclusion of Makower’s essay, however a more comprehensive argument would be needed for such a claim to be supported.

In this exhibit, I have discussed the ways in which “The Old Oxford Music Hall” by Walter Sickert and “On the Art of Yvette Guilbert” by Stanley V. Makower prove that the Victorian preoccupation with the celebrities of the music hall and celebrity culture is reflected inthe Yellow Book. This is not to suggest thatthe Yellow Bookwas and is not a highly influential literary publication and it is not to suggest thatthe Yellow Bookdid not include works that can be viewed as avant garde and experimental. Instead, I only hope to suggest that perhaps there is not a single lens to viewthe Yellow Book. Perhaps as readers in the twenty-first century, over a hundred years after the publication ofthe Yellow Book, we can reconcile that there could be a dual nature ofthe Yellow Book, in which it simultaneously reflects the highbrow culture of the avant garde, bohemian nature of fin de siècle England and the supposed lower culture of the masses.