AUBREY BEARDSLEY: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

Aubrey Beardsley (1872 - 1898) was a British painter and illustrator known for being the leading English exponent of his art in the 1890s; in fact, at that time he had become the most famous young artist in England. After Oscar Wilde, he was the most prominent figure in the beautician movement.

His style evolved drastically, from the influences of the medieval Renaissance, with pre-Raphaelite elements, through Japonism to the marked beginnings of Art Nouveau. The mixture of various influences has been considered one of the best works of his short and prolific career.

Aubrey Beardsley, via Wikimedia Commons

Beardsley has long been regarded as one of the most controversial artists of the modern art era, famous for his dark and erotic images. His works were a scandal at the time and aroused incredible admiration in others.

Although he achieved success in his early 20s, his artistic career had a rather short span of only six years due to his early passing.

Biography

Early life and family

Aubrey Beardsley was born on August 21, 1872, in Brighton, England. His father, Vincent Beardsley, was from a wealthy family, but after a while he lost his position, forcing him to find a job.

His mother, Ellen (Pitt) Beardsle, and also came from a wealthy family in society; was a pianist and painter of silhouettes. Possibly from her Aubrey aroused his curiosity for art.

The Pitts were a well established and respected family in Brighton. It is said that Aubrey's mother had a better position than her father; in fact, shortly after their marriage, Vincent had to sell some of his assets to pay for his default for not having married another woman.

Before Audrey's penchant for drawing, she had a passion for music that she continued throughout her life and on which she worked for a time. At 7 years old, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and had to be sent to Sussex school to regain her respiratory strength.

In 1883, her father accepted a position in London where Audrey and her sister Mabel were encouraged to give piano recitals to earn extra money. Aubrey and his sister managed to perform at various concerts in the city and became known as musical phenomena.

Studies

A year later, in 1884, financial difficulties forced his parents to send him and his sister to their maternal great-aunt in Brighton.

The Beardsley brothers are said to have walked into a church to view the Pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows; an artistic expression of the Victorian era. Apparently this was Aubrey Beardsley's first approach to Pre-Raphaelite art that inspired him in subsequent years.

In January 1885, he began attending Brighton, Hove and Sussex High School, where he spent the next four years. Her first poems, drawings, and cartoons appeared in print in the school magazine.

In 1888, Aubrey Beardsley got a job in an architect's office and then another at an insurance company known as The Guardian Life and Fire.

Beardsley, a faithful follower of the English artist Edward Burne-Jones, thought he could easily get close to the artist. Thanks to his conviction, he got Burne-Jones to see a sample of his work.

From there, Burne-Jones became Beardsley's mentor, while in parallel working as a clerk for a living. Sir Burne-Jones led him to attend evening classes at Westminster School of Art for several months, this being his only professional instruction.

Race

In 1892, a bookseller named Frederick Evans recommended Beardsley to publisher JM Dent as an illustrator for his next book. Dent was looking for an illustrator imaginative enough capable of pulling off a number of different designs.

After Beardsley sent Dent a test copy, he was hired right away. At the beginning of the project, Beardsley began with great enthusiasm by reproducing one drawing after another; However, Beardsley began to deviate from history causing Dent discontent.

Beardsley began working on illustrations that reminded him of Burne-Jones art. Despite this, that same year Beardsley traveled to Paris where he discovered the poster art of the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the Parisian fashion of Japanese prints, which were of great influence on his own style.

In 1893, two of Dent's works were published making Beardsley the most famous young artist in England. The “Beardsley Boom” began when it appeared in The Studio's lead article in a London art publication.

From that publication, the Irish writer Oscar Wilde considered working with Beardsley after seeing his illustrations. From there, Wilde invited Beardsley to illustrate his renowned work, Salomé.

Oscar Wilde scandal

After the illustrations for Salomé, Beardsley was closely linked to Oscar Wilde in the public mind, which was detrimental to Beardsley due to the Irishman's arrest for sexual indecency.

Although the illustrator had no immediate connections to the events, The Yellow Book (quarterly literary publication) expelled Beardsley due to his tenuous ties to Wilde. After these events, Beardsley's career at the magazine was practically lost.

From there, he teamed up with The Yellow Book editor and contributor Leonard Smithers to create a rival newspaper called The Savoy Magazine, of which Beardsley became the art director. At the same time, he continued to exercise his talent for satirical and political caricature.

Last years

In January 1896, Beardsley suffered a slight hemorrhage due to his tuberculosis. Although he became even weaker after this relapse, he began working on his illustrations for The Rape of the Lock; a long narrative poem by the Englishman Alexander Pope.

These closely complex drawings with a distinct 18th century Rococo style are considered some of his finest work. The work of the English poet was published that same year, while Beardsley was working on an erotic book entitled Lysistrata.

In December 1896, Beardsley suffered a violent hemorrhage while walking with his mother in Boscombe, England. Afterward, she moved to the nearby town of Bournemouth to live in a more temperate climate.

On December 31, 1897, Beardsley chose to be received by the Catholic Church as a form of repentance after some of his publications.

The illustrator wrote to Leonard Smithers pleading with him to destroy all copies of the Lysistrata work as well as any other obscene drawings; despite that, Smithers ignored Beardsley's request.

Death

Beardsley moved to the French Riviera where he died on March 16, 1898 at the age of 25. After his death, Oscar Wilde wrote about his short life.

Contributions

Support for aestheticism

The aesthetic movement began as a push for reform in Britain in the hands of a radical group of designers and artists in the 1860s. The movement continued to flourish for the next two decades, just as Beardsley started out in the world of illustrations..

For this reason, Beardsley defended the movement, being one of its most faithful representatives. At that time beauticians focused more on the "aesthetically beautiful" rather than the deep meaning of the works, such as socio-political issues.

Many estheticians were dissatisfied with the standards of art and designs revealed in the 1850s by the hand of realism and naturalism. The young reformers wanted to discover new ways of living in defiance of what were for them "horrendous design standards."

While Edward Brune-Jones' art was exhibited as a participant in the movement, his art contains narrative and conveys moral messages. Beardsley had turned away from that element despite having been its faithful follower.

An example of Beardsley's beautician movement is erotic illustrations. Illustrations depicting huge sexual organs exemplify the core values ​​of aestheticism, which encourages sensual representation rather than moral messages.

Support for the Japanese movement

Japanism was first described in 1872 in France, and consists of the study of Japanese art and how it affected the fine arts throughout Western culture. The term is used to refer to the Japanese influence on European art.

When Beardsley traveled to Paris, he was imbued with this style that was booming for the time, especially by the European Impressionists. Beardsley was persuaded by Japanese style and prints, so he adopted it in his illustrations.

Not only was Beardsley strongly immersed in this type of art, but most members of the beautician movement are said to have been influenced by the Japanese woodcuts that became popular in Britain.

Pioneer of Art Nouveau

The graphic arts flourished in the Art Nouveau (New Art) period, thanks to new printing technologies and color lithography that enabled the mass production of color posters. Beardsley was the leader of this movement in Great Britain and the greatest in the graphic arts.

At the end of the 19th century, the most important aesthetic trend was being Art Nouveau in Great Britain; however, he was controversial for his risky displays of strong, dark, evil, and erotic images.

Despite that, a group of artists - including Aubrey Beardsley - committed themselves to the style. His works in black and white, the flowing lines and the erotic charge, were characteristic of Art Nouveau.

Beardsley borrowed aspects of various art movements and adopted them for his own purposes and style. He appropriated death, eroticism and decadence while little by little he adapted to the modern style of Art Nouveau.

Where Beardsley's "New Art" is most reflected is in the illustrations made for the work Salomé; wearing the lines has an organic and loose feel. Furthermore, the use of the lily was characteristic of Art Nouveau: many motifs included vine tendrils and lilies.

Plays

How Sir Tristram drank from the love drink

This illustration was made by Aubrey Beardsley between 1893 and 1894 and produced for the work Le Morte D'Arthur by the Englishman Thomas Malory. It was one of many others that helped tell the author's interpretation of the King Arthur story.

The image refers to the doomed love story of Tristram and Isolde. Beardsley depicts the couple as androgynous figures; that is, they have ambiguous bodily features without differentiating gender.

The couple is presented on a decorative pillar that separates the composition. Framed flowers adorn the border and appear ready to explode, suggesting maturity or perhaps predicting the blooming of something sinister.

This work has been dubbed Beardsley's first masterpiece, giving it a unique style loaded with medieval floral patterns, Pre-Raphaelite romance, and dark themes of sex and death.

The peacock skirt

The Peacock Skirt is an 1893 illustration by Aubrey Beardsley. His original pen and ink drawing was reproduced as a woodcut in the first English edition of Oscar Wilde's Salomé.

The illustration shows a rear view of the room of a woman (Salomé) dressed in a long robe with a stylized peacock feather pattern as well as her headdress. Other long peacock feathers cover its back.

Salome is turning right to converse with "the young Syrian," mentioned in the play, with hairy male knees with elaborate hairdo and pleated tunic.

Beardsley's intention is to challenge Victorian concepts of sexuality and gender roles. The notion of the new woman is represented in her striking peacock skirt, contrary to the Victorian notion of the submissive and subordinate woman.

Particularly in this work, the flowing lines demonstrate the fundamental characteristic of Art Nouveau that Beardsley wanted to reflect.

The woman in the moon (cover of Salomé)

The woman in the moon is an illustration made by Abrey Beardsley in the year 1894 created especially for the work Salomé by Oscar Wilde. The illustration is based on a naked man trying to protect another covered by a tunic, who looks at the moon on the horizon.

In Wilde's version, both characters are victims of an unrequited love. In this play, Beardsley plays with the idea of ​​representing the man in the moon as the author, Wilde, who controls the characters. The moon face cartoon is fat, similar to other mocking portraits created by the illustrator.

As in other works, Beardsley highlights in this one the homosexual passions to which he alludes throughout the book, also with the purpose of facing up to the Victorian criticisms of homosexuality at the time.

References

1. Aubrey Beardsley, Portal of Normal Rockwell Museum, (nd). Taken from illustrationhistory.org
2. Aubrey Beardsley, editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, (nd). Taken from britannica.com
3. Aubrey Beardsley, Wikipedia in English, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org
4. Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98), editors of Encyclopedia of Visual Artist, (nd). Taken from visual-arts-cork.com
5. Aubrey Beardsley: Dandy of Aestheticism, Portal Knoji, (2012). Taken from arthistory.knoji.com
6. Aubrey Beardsley, editors of The Art Story, (nd). Taken from theartstory.org