AUBREY BEARDSLEY - ARTIST EXTRAORDINAIRE

The Peacock Skirt, 1894

One of the world’s greatest illustrators, Aubrey Beardsley, was born 140 years ago in Brighton, England. Although forgotten by some, there is still a steady stream of enthusiasts who appreciated his work. Certainly before his time in many ways, Aubrey Vincent Beardsley had trained at the Westminster School of Art and his work is quintessentially Art Nouveau.

Risque to say the least, his drawings, executed in black ink, were influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts and they emphasized the grotesque, the decadent and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement alongside the likes of Oscar Wilde, whose style of dress he either emulated or copied, and the artist Whistler.

Despite his few years on this earth he was very prolific and not only produced drawings and illustrations, posters, political cartoons, and was musical as well, becoming an infant musical phenomenon appearing at concerts with his older sister Mabel.

Aubrey Beardsley

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. 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 station, in the more pronounced class division of the era. 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. 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.

Aubrey Beardsley was born in Brighton on 21 August 1872. 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. 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. He studied Field Illustration training at the Westminster School of Art and there became interested in the movement Art Nouveau, and Aestheticism. His drawings, executed in black ink and 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 style and the poster movement was significant, despite the brevity of his career

The Black Cat

The above illustration is from his cover for a book of the same name by Edgar Allen Poe. Beardleys 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.

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 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.

The Women in the Moon for the Oscar Wilde play Salome

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; these include his illustrations for a privately printed edition of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, and his drawings for Oscar Wilde's play Salome, which eventually premiered in Paris in 1896.

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. But rumours can always be discounted.

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.

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

Beardsley was active till his death aged 25. He died from tuberculosis on the 16 March 1898 in Menton, France. We are grateful that his marvelous work is still around today as there are fans of Art Nouveau still around today it’s highly likely that his work and legacy will live on forever. I personally admire artists who were prolific and talented and he was one of them.