Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Beardsley
Background information
Birthdate:	Aug 21, 1872
Born as:	Aubrey Vincent Beardsley
Location:	Brighton, Sussex, England
Date of death:	Mar 16, 1898 - age  26
Death place:	Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France
Education:	Westminster School of Art
Occupation:	Illustration, graphics/ graphic arts
Buried:	Cimetière du Vieux-Château, Menton, France
Nationality:	British

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 1872 – 16 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His drawings in black ink, influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A. McNeill Whistler. Beardsley's contribution to the development of the Art Nouveau and poster styles was significant, despite the brevity of his career before his early death from tuberculosis.

Work

The Peacock Skirt, 1893

In 1892, Beardsley travelled to Paris, where he discovered the poster art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the Parisian fashion for Japanese prints, both of which would be major influences on his own style. Beardsley's first commission was Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory (1893), which he illustrated for the publishing house J. M. Dent and Company.

His six years of major creative output can be divided into several periods, identified by the form of his signature. In the early period his work is mostly unsigned. During 1891 and 1892 he progressed to using his initials, A.V.B. In mid-1892, the period of Le Morte d'Arthur and The Bon Mots he used a Japanese-influenced mark which became progressively more graceful, sometimes accompanied by A.B. in block capitals.

He co-founded The Yellow Book with American writer Henry Harland, and for the first four editions he served as Art Editor and produced the cover designs and many illustrations for the magazine. He was also closely aligned with Aestheticism, the British counterpart of Decadent movement|and Symbolism. Most of his images are done in ink, and feature large dark areas contrasted with large blank ones, and areas of fine detail contrasted with areas with none at all.

The Stomach Dance, 1893

Private life

Beardsley was a public as well as private eccentric. He said, "I have one aim-the grotesque. If I am not grotesque I am nothing." Wilde said he had "a face like a silver hatchet, and grass green hair." Beardsley was meticulous about his attire: dove-grey suits, hats, ties; yellow gloves. He would appear at his publisher's in a morning coat and patent leather Plimsoll shoes.

Although Beardsley was associated with the homosexual clique that included Oscar Wilde and other English aesthetes, the details of his sexuality remain in question. He was generally regarded as asexual. Speculation about his sexuality include rumors of an incestuous relationship with his elder sister, Mabel, who may have become pregnant by her brother and miscarried. During his entire career, Beardsley had recurrent attacks of tuberculosis. He suffered frequent lung haemorrhages and was often unable to work or leave his home.

Beardsley converted to Roman Catholicism in March 1897, and subsequently begged his publisher, Leonard Smithers, to “destroy all copies of Lysistrata and bad drawings... by all that is holy all obscene drawings." Smithers ignored Beardsley’s wishes, and actually continued to sell reproductions as well as forgeries of Beardsley's work.

Death

In December 1896, Beardsley suffered a violent hemorrhage, leaving him in precarious health. By April 1897, a month after his conversion to Catholicism, his deteriorating health prompted a move to the French Riviera. There he died a year later, on 16 March 1898, of tuberculosis at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France, attended by his mother and sister. He was 25 years old. Following a requiem mass in Menton Cathedral the following day, his remains were interred in the adjacent cemetary at Cimetière du Trabuquet.

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• Works of Aubrey Beardsley
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  "Isolde", illustration in Pan magazine

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  John the Baptizer and Salome

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  Illustration from "Le Morte d'Arthur"

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  Et in Arcadia Ego

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  Venus between Terminal Gods

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  Illustration for Edgar Alan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue

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  The Barge

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  Tailpiece or Cul de Lampe, 1893

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  The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope

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  Cover of One Thousand and One Nights

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  Masquerade

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  The driving of Cupid from the garden

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  The Climax

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Bibliography

• Beardsley, Aubrey, Simon Wilson, and Linda Gertner Zatlin. 1998. Aubrey Beardsley: a centenary tribute. Tokyo: Art Life Ltd. OCLC 42742305 Bibliography

External links

More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Aubrey_Beardsley ]

Works by or about Aubrey Beardsley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

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