(1872–98). Noted for his fantastic and highly decorative drawings, Aubrey Beardsley was the leading English illustrator of the 1890s and—after Oscar Wilde—the outstanding figure in the aestheticism movement, which promoted the notion that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone. Beardsley was greatly influenced by the elegant, curved lines characteristic of art nouveau, as well as the bold sense of design found in Japanese woodcuts. But what most startled the society of his time was the obvious sensuality of the women in his drawings.
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was born in Brighton, Sussex, England, on Aug. 21, 1872. Drawing was a strong interest from early childhood, and Beardsley continued with it as an adult, while earning his living as a clerk. A meeting with the English artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones in 1891 led to his attending evening classes at the Westminster School of Art for a few months—his only professional instruction.
In 1893 he was asked to illustrate a new edition of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. In 1894 he was appointed art editor and illustrator of a new magazine, The Yellow Book. His illustrations for Oscar Wilde’s play Salomé won him widespread notoriety. Although Beardsley was not homosexual and was in no way connected with the scandals surrounding Wilde (because of his homosexuality), he was dismissed from The Yellow Book in the general reaction against aestheticism that followed Wilde’s exposure as a homosexual in 1895. However, he quickly found employment as the principal illustrator of another new magazine, The Savoy.
In addition to his work for The Savoy, Beardsley illustrated numerous books, including in 1896 Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock. During this period he also wrote some poems and a prose parody, Under the Hill (1903; the original uncensored version, The Story of Venus and Tannhauser, appeared in 1907).
For most of his short life Beardsley suffered from poor health due to tuberculosis, which he first contracted at the age of 6. When he was 17, he again fell victim to the disease, and from 1896 he was an invalid. Beardsley died on March 16, 1898, in Menton, France, at the age of 25. His work enjoyed periodic revivals, most notably during the 1960s.
