Aubrey Beardsley is one of the greatest graphic illustrators in the world. His works are all in black and white, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. Beardsley also contribute to the development of art Nouveau style and the poster movement.
Beardsley was born in August, 1872, in Brighton, England, a middle class family. His father worked irregularly at London breweries. Beardsley's mother provided a slender income by giving piano lesson. Beardsley was considered as an artist when he was really young. His sister, Mabel, who was also really talented, and became an actress later on. His parents marriage wasn't very happy, his father was undertaken to marry another women.
In 1885, Beardsley first published a drawing and cartoons in the school news paper of Bristol Grammar School Past and Present. In 1888, he also posted his work in an architect's office, and then in the Guardian Life and Fire Insurance Company. Later on, he became an clerk in London and met many friends in the publishing industry. In 1891, Beardsley was suggested to take a formal art education. He attended class at the Westminster School of Art.
During 1893 and 1894, Beardsley start to producing illustration and covers for books and periodicals. Also in 1893, Beardsley formed an alliance with the person who was catapult him to game and prove his down fall, Oscar Wilde.
In February of that year (1893), Wilde's scandalous play Salome was published in its original French version. An illustration inspired by the drama was admired by Wilde and Beardsley was commissioned 50 guineas to Illustrate the English edition. This assignment was the beginning of celebrity but also of an uneasy, and at times unpleasant, friendship with Wilde, which officially ended when Wilde was tried and convicted of sodomy in 1895.
Although Beardsley was aligned with the homosexual clique that included Oscar Wilde and other English aesthetes, the details of Beardsley's sexuality remain in question. Speculation about the artist's sexuality include the rumors of an incestuous relationship with his elder sister, Mabel, who may have borne his miscarried child.
Aubrey Beardsley was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned for his dark and perverse images and the grotesque erotica. He explored the themes in his later work. His most famous erotic illustrations were on themes of history and mythology, such as his illustrations for Lysistrata and Salomé.
Beardsley died from tuberculosis when he was only 25.
Salome
Actually this is my favorite painting form Beardsley. I saw this picture first, the features in this picture are really unique. People's face remain resentment. Then I read the story of Salome. It was about a princess who fall in love with a prophet. She proposed to him, yet he refused it. The princess fells ashamed and killed the prophet. In this picture, the princess hold the prophet's head. We can see from this picture that Beardsley used a lot of Japanese elements in his work. Such as the dragon skin on the top left of the painting. Besides, Beardsley has created his own signature, which shows on the bottom of the right corner.
Isolde
Aubrey Beardsley published this painting during 1895 for the Studio magazine of the tragic opera heroine drinking the love potion. Well, I think it might because Beardsley's love experience was not smooth, so he likes to depict and ironic the love and the dark side of the society. One of the reason that i really like his work is that all his painting seems to have a huge background behind it. It can evoke my imagination by looking at his work.
Lucian
References:
Aubrey Beardsley: An overview: http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/beardsley/index.html
Art in the picture: http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Aubrey_Beardsley/
http://www.artsycraftsy.com/beardsley_prints.html
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