Kultur

Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, 1872-1898

English illustrator

Aubrey Beardsley is famous for his peculiar flat, linear, black-and-white drawings without shades, which exercised great influence on the contemporary Art-Nouveau style and also on later artists. He was born on 21 August 1872 as the son of Ellen Pitt and Vincent Beardsley in Brighton, England. The family was often close to destitution, as Beardsley's father lost his inherited fortune. Beardsley's mother provided a slender income by giving piano lessons. Both Beardsley and his sister Mabel, who later became an actress, were considered artistic and musical prodigies. Beardsley published some poems and illustrations in the school magazine and other magazines. This brought him little attention, however.

At the age of 18 he moved to London and was employed as an insurance clerk. Beardsley was discontented with his work and sought an entrance into the art world. The artist and his sister went uninvited to see the studio of the painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones. They were sent away by a servant, but as they left, Burne-Jones spotted Mabel's red hair and asked them in. Impressed by the drawings in Beardsley's portfolio, he recommended that the young artist attend night classes at the Westminister School of Art. In 1892, the year after, Beardsley went to Paris encouraged by Puvis de Chavanne, President of the Salon des Beaux Arts. There he met J. M. Dent, who commissioned him to illustrate a new edition of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. This massive work, issued first in 12 parts and later in volume form, contained over 300 different illustrations, chapter headings, and vignettes. Oscar Wilde admired some other works by Beardsley and commissioned him to illustrate the English edition of his tragedy Salomé (1894). The scandalous edition was the beginning of celebrity but also of an uneasy, and at times unpleasant, friendship with Wilde.

Together with some friends Beardsley started a magazine for art and literature, The Yellow Book. The first issue was published in April 1894 and was an overnight sensation. At first it was published on a quarterly basis, but the public demand turned The Yellow Book into a monthly magazine. Aubrey Beardsley was the magazine's art editor and contributed a number of illustrations, including title pages and covers. Many of the writers belonged to the "decadent movement", and some critics regarded The Yellow Book as indecent. The perceived link between Beardsley and Wilde was so strong that Beardsley was dismissed from The Yellow Book when Wilde was accused and convicted of sodomy in 1895, even though Wilde had in fact never contributed to the magazine. The publisher Leonard Smithers employed Beardsley for a rival periodical, The Savoy, with Arthur Symons as editor. In The Savoy Beardsley published some texts as well as illustrations, e.g. Under the Hill and The Ballad of a Barber. When publication ceased in December 1896, Beardsley continued to illustrate other authors' works for Smithers. Among these were The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope, Volpone by Ben Jonson, and Lysistrata by Aristophanes. Smithers also issued Beardsley's own A Book of Fifty Drawings, the first collected album of his work.

The artist's health was always fragile; he had his first attack of tuberculosis at the age of nine. The disease was to reduce him to an invalid several times, and in 1897 Beardsley moved to Henton in southern France in the hope that the climate might improve his condition. When he realised that he only had a short time left to live, he converted to Catholicism. On 15 March 1898 Aubrey Beardsley died, at the age of 25.

The Andrén collection contains 28 books written or illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley and 20 biographies about him. The collection also contains books about his time and about Victorian literature.

The Art of Aubrey Beardsley 

Google Books - Aubrey Beardsley