Aubrey Beardsley

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A Footnote (self-portrait), ink on board by Aubrey Beardsley, 1896.

(born Aug. 21, 1872, Brighton, Sussex, Eng. — died March 16, 1898, Menton, Fr.) British illustrator. His only formal training was a few months of evening classes at the Westminster School of Art. His style was based on the work of Edward Burne-Jones and Japanese woodcuts, and he quickly became a master of the curvilinear black-and-white ornamental illustration popularized by the Art Nouveau movement. In 1893 he illustrated an edition of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur, and in 1894 he achieved notoriety with his erotic illustrations for the English version of Oscar Wilde's Salome. He became art editor and illustrator of the new quarterly The Yellow Book that same year. He died at age 25 of tuberculosis.

For more information on Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, visit Britannica.com.

(b Brighton, 21 Aug 1872; d Menton, 16 March 1898). English draughtsman and writer. He was brought up in Brighton, in genteel poverty, by his mother. She gave her children an intensive education in music and books, and by the time he was sent to boarding-school at the age of seven Beardsley was exceptionally literate and something of a musical prodigy. He was also already infected with the tuberculosis that eventually killed him. There is evidence that his talent for drawing was highly developed by the age of ten, and he was subsequently encouraged by his housemaster at Brighton Grammar School, Arthur William King. Beardsley left school at the end of 1888, and in January 1889 became a clerk at the Guardian Life and Fire Insurance Company in the City of London. Attacks of haemorrhaging of the lungs forced him to abandon his job at the end of 1889. On the strength of a short story sold to Tit Bits he tried to pursue a literary career, but when his health improved in the spring of 1890, he returned both to his job and to drawing. Final affirmation of the direction of his art came in July 1891, when he showed his work to Edward Burne-Jones, who told Beardsley: 'I seldom or never advise anyone to take up art as a profession, but in your case I can do nothing else.' Burne-Jones's enthusiasm is not perhaps surprising since there was much of his own style in Beardsley's work at the time, together with other influences, notably Mantegna; both can be seen in his pen-and-ink drawing Hamlet patris manem sequiiur [sic] ('Hamlet following the ghost of his father'; 1891; London, BM).

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The English illustrator Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (1872-1898) was the most influential draftsman of his era in England. He was closely connected with the fin-de-siècle period.

Aubrey Beardsley was born in Brighton on Aug. 21, 1872. His father, the son of a local jeweler, lost the money he had inherited, so his mother supported the family by giving music lessons and working as a governess. Because of his mother's absence from home, Aubrey was sent to a nearby boarding school at the age of 6; his schooling was interrupted by attacks of tuberculosis. He began to draw in school, and by the age of 10 he was selling his drawings, which were imitations of Kate Greenaway's.

At the age of 15 Beardsley went to work in London, first for a surveyor and then in an insurance office. On the spur of the moment, he called on the painter Edward Burne-Jones, who prophesied that Beardsley would become a great artist. His first important commission, an enormous, highly paid one, to illustrate Malory's Morte d'Arthur, came at the age of 20; this work is a masterpiece. Beardsley's drawings in the first issue of the Studio magazine were a tremendous success; he said, quite rightly, that he had "already far outdistanced the old men" and that he "had fortune at his feet." His illustrations for Oscar Wilde's play Salome were a great success, but Wilde did not like the drawings, for he feared that they overshadowed the play.

Beardsley was a bit of a dandy, with "a face like a silver hatchet, and grass green hair, " according to Wilde. Beardsley was a public character as well as a private eccentric before his twenty-first birthday. He said, "I have one aim - the grotesque. If I am not grotesque I am nothing." Anxious to make the most of his life, which he knew would be short, he took on all kinds of commissions.

From its first issue, Beardsley was art editor of the Yellow Book, a magazine whose format and title were taken from the cheap French novel of the day. When Wilde was arrested, Beardsley's association with him in the public mind was so close that the publishers of the Yellow Book felt they had to get rid of him. Suddenly no respectable publisher would employ him.

Beardsley eventually made a connection with a new magazine, the Savoy. Many of the writers were former contributors to the Yellow Book. As with the Yellow Book, Beardsley was the outstanding attraction of the Savoy, and it was a great blow to the magazine when he had to suspend his contributions because of his health. He died in Menton, France, on March 16, 1898, at the age of 25, working right up to the end.

Beardsley was a designer of genius and a draftsman of a high order of talent. His illustrations are distinguished by a rhythmic, curving line that has many of the characteristics of engraving, and his whole conception of the art of illustration was profoundly personal and original. His style, overblown in manner and "decadent" in subject matter, was dominant in England and the United States during part of the "great age of illustration." Through Sergei Diaghilev it had a strong effect on the Russian ballet. Beardsley's influence on Art Nouveau was profound, and the painters Wassily Kandinsky and Pablo Picasso were early admirers of his work.

Further Reading

The best book on Beardsley is Stanley Weintraub, Beardsley: A Biography (1967). Two earlier studies are Robert Ross, Aubrey Beardsley (1909), and Haldane Macfall, Aubrey Beardsley: The Man and His Work (1927).

Additional Sources

Benkovitz, Miriam J., Aubrey Beardsley, an account of his life, New York: Putnam, 1981.

Ross, Robert Baldwin, Aubrey Beardsley, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1977.

One of the leading Art Nouveau graphic artists in Britain, Beardsley courted controversy with a number of his sexually charged illustrations, particularly those for Oscar Wilde's Salome (1894) and literary quarterly, The Yellow Book (1894-7). His strong linear, black and white style has an almost calligraphic fluency, yet also bears affinities with Japanese woodblock prints that had exerted such a strong interest amongst artists and designers in the second half of the 19th century after trade links with Japan were restored. His first important commission was an 1892 edition of Malory's Morte D'Arthur, followed by the showcasing of many aspects of his work in the influential magazine the Studio in 1893. His notoriety gathered pace with his taking on the art editorship of The Yellow Book in 1894, a potent vehicle for artistic expression. His scandalous reputation was further highlighted by allegations about his relationship with the poet, playwright, and critic Oscar Wilde, leading to his dismissal from The Yellow Book after only four issues. This did not prevent his taking up another art editorship, this time for the literary quarterly, the Savoy, the first issue of which was published in 1896. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 26.

Quotes:

"No language is rude that can boast polite writers."

"In the present age, alas! our pens are ravished by unlettered authors and unmannered critics, that make a havoc rather than a building, a wilderness rather than a garden. But, a lack! what boots it to drop tears upon the preterit?"

Aubrey Beardsley
Portrait of Beardsley by Frederick Hollyer, 1896
Birth name	Aubrey Vincent Beardsley
Born	21 August 1872(1872-08-21) Brighton, England
Died	16 March 1898 (aged 25) Menton, France
Nationality	English
Field	Illustration
Training	Westminster School of Art
Movement	Art Nouveau, Aestheticism

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 1872 – 16 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His drawings are characterized by an erotic nature, and his most erotic illustrations are those found in the Lysistrata; Beardsley drew these for a privately printed edition.

Beardsley later converted to Catholicism, and would subsequently beg his publisher to “destroy all copies of Lysistrata and bad drawings...by all that is holy all obscene drawings." His publisher, Leonard Smithers, ignored Beardsley’s wishes, and actually continued to sell reproductions as well as forgeries of Beardsley's work.^[1]

Beardsley was active till his death in Menton, France, at the age of 25 on 16 March 1898 of tuberculosis.^[2] He had been received into the Roman Catholic church in March of the previous year.

Contents 1 Life 2 Work 3 Media Portrayals 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

Life

Beardsley was born in Brighton on 21 August 1872. His father, Vincent Paul Beardsley (1839–1909), was the son of a tradesman; Vincent had no trade himself, however, and instead relied on a private income from an inheritance that he received from his maternal grandfather when he was twenty-one.^[3] Vincent's wife, Ellen Agnus Pitt (1846–1932), was the daughter of Surgeon-Major William Pitt of the Indian Army. The Pitts were a well-established and respected family in Brighton, and it is widely accepted that Beardsley's mother married beneath her. Shortly after their wedding, Vincent was obliged to sell some of his property in order to settle a claim for "breach of promise" from another woman who claimed that he had undertaken to marry her.^[4] At the time of his birth, Beardsley's family, which included his sister Mabel who was one year older, were living in Ellen's familial home at 12 Buckingham Road.^[5]

In 1883 his family settled in London, and in the following year he appeared in public as an "infant musical phenomenon," playing at several concerts with his sister. He attended Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School in 1884, before moving on to attend Bristol Grammar School, where in 1885 he wrote a play, which he performed together with other students. At about the same time his first drawings and cartoons were published in the school newspaper of the Bristol Grammar School Past and Present. In 1888 he obtained a post in an architect's office, and afterwards one in the Guardian Life and Fire Insurance Company. In 1891, under the advice of Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, he took up art as a profession. In 1892 he attended the classes at the Westminster School of Art, then under Professor Fred Brown.

Work

The Stomach Dance, 1894

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 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.^[1] He was aligned with the Yellow Book coterie of artists and writers. He was an art editor for the first four editions and produced many illustrations for the magazine. He was also closely aligned with Aestheticism, the British counterpart of Decadence 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.

Beardsley was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned for his dark and perverse images and the grotesque erotica, which were the main themes of his later work. Some of his drawings, inspired by Japanese shunga, featured enormous genitalia. His most famous erotic illustrations were on themes of history and mythology, including his illustrations for Aristophanes' Lysistrata and Wilde's Salomé.

The Peacock Skirt, 1894

He illustrated Oscar Wilde's play Salomé - the play eventually premiered in Paris in 1896. He also produced extensive illustrations for books and magazines (e.g. for a deluxe edition of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur) and worked for magazines like The Savoy and The Studio. Beardsley also wrote Under the Hill, an unfinished erotic tale based loosely on the legend of Tannhäuser. Beardsley was also a caricaturist and did some political cartoons, mirroring Wilde's irreverent wit in art. Beardsley's work reflected the decadence of his era and his influence was enormous, clearly visible in the work of the French Symbolists, the Poster art Movement of the 1890s and the work of many later-period Art Nouveau artists like Pape and Clarke.

Beardsley was a public character as well as a 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 pumps.

Der Puderquast, 1893

Although Beardsley was aligned 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—which is hardly surprising, considering his chronic illness and his devotion to his work. 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. Through his entire career, Beardsley had recurrent attacks of the disease that would end it. He suffered frequent lung hemorrhages and was often unable to work or leave his home.

Media Portrayals

In the BBC 1982 Playhouse drama Aubrey, written by John Selwyn Gilbert, Beardsley was portrayed by actor John Dicks. The drama followed Beardsley's life from the time of Oscar Wilde’s arrest in April 1895, which resulted in Beardsley losing his position at the Yellow Book, to his death from tuberculosis in 1898.^[6]

The Daily Northwestern announcing Beardley's death, March 17, 1898

See also

• Art Nouveau

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} The Collected Drawings of Aubrey Beardsley. Crown Publishers, Inc.. 1967. 
2. ^ Aubrey Beardsley: A biography by Matthew Sturgis: (Harper Collins, 1998) ISBN 0-00-255789-4
3. ^ Sturgis, p. 8
4. ^ Sturgis, p. 10
5. ^ Sturgis, p. 3
6. ^ [1] Aubrey by John Selwyn Gilbert

References

• Benkovitz, Miriam J. 1980. Aubrey Beardsley, an Account of his Life. New York, N.Y.: Putnam. ISBN 039912408X.
• Brophy, Brigid. 1969. Black and White; a Portrait of Aubrey Beardsley. New York, N.Y.: Stein and Day.
• Calloway, Stephen. 1998. Aubrey Beardsley. New York, N.Y.: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810940094.
• Fletcher, Ian. 1987. Aubrey Beardsley. Boston, M.A.: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0805769587.
• Ross, Robert 1909. Aubrey Beardsley. London: John Lane.
• Snodgrass, Chris. 1995. Aubrey Beardsley: Dandy of the Grotesque. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195090624.
• Symons, Arthur. 1898. Aubrey Beardsley. London: At the Sign of the Unicorn.
• Sturgis, Matthew. 1998. Aubrey Beardsley: a Biography. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press. ISBN 087951910X.
• Weintraub, Stanley. 1967. Beardsley: a Biography. New York, N.Y.: Braziller.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aubrey Beardsley

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent.

• Works by or about Aubrey Beardsley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Aubrey Beardsley's gravesite, Menton, France (at findagrave.com)
• Works displayed at Art Renewal Center website
• Aubrey Beardsley Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin

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