Aubrey Beardsley - Brighton Boy
A couple of weeks ago Charlie Raven and I took the Aubrey Beardsley Tour of Brighton – a piece of research on Charlie's part, as he features as a minor character in her upcoming novel 'The Compact'.
It was one of several 'Open Door Events' organised by the Regency Society, taking place at various locations around the City over the course of a week, and our guide was prominent Brightonian and Beardsley enthusiast Alexia Lazou. Her enthusiasm certainly galvanised our merry band as we took the steep incline of the West Hill from Brighton Station to Buckingham Road, where an ornate plaque on a substantial-looking residence informed us that 'Aubrey Beardsley, Master of Line, was born in this House'). From there we took in the (currently derelict) site of the old Brighton, Hove & Sussex Grammar School which he attended as a boy (not, as is often supposed, Brighton College, which was reserved for the 'sons of gentry'); the Church where his parents were married (St Nicholas, oldest in Brighton and proud guardian of a twelfth century font) and Pavilion Gardens where he apparently mis-spent many a leisure hour. Our group then decided to eschew the long hike to Lower Rock Gardens, where Aubrey and his sister Mabel stayed periodically with their Great-Aunt Sarah at no. 21, and the climb up Muesli Mountain (aka the Hanover area) to the Church of the Annunciation where he used to worship, in favour of the Yellow Book Bar on London Road where they serve a lethal gin-based concoction known at 'The Aubrey Beardsley Special'.
We were a great little crowd, around twelve taking the walk dwindling to eight partaking of refreshments; many interesting conversations were started up as we swapped our differing reasons for taking the Beardsley Tour and our various snippets of knowledge about his life and art. Alexia passed round examples of the various stages that went into developing his distinctive artistic style - from very ordinary-looking adolescent sketches and caricatures to the well known ornate black-and-white prints that adorned the walls of the bar - and recommended biographies and further reading material. It was a fun and fascinating experience.
What really stands out for me in retrospect is the struggle that poor Aubrey experienced, as the son of a tradesman, in making his way into the artistic elite of the Decadent era. Unlike his rich patrons (Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Oscar Wilde, Jerome Pollitt etc) he had no independent fortune, and was driven to humiliating measures to obtain commissions for his work; he was dependent upon the kindness of relatives, the generosity of old schoolmasters, the waxing and waning enthusiasm of connoisseurs, the flimsy popularity of journals that showcased his art such as The Yellow Book and The Savoy, to make a living. His father Vincent Beardsley had lost his own modest inheritance to a breach of promise of marriage prosecution, and despite finding employment with various London breweries was unable to support his wife and two children; his mother Ellen was obliged to give piano lessons and French tuition to supplement the family income, and his sister Mabel eventually found work as a moderately successful actress. All his life Aubrey was haunted by the twin spectres of illness (the tuberculosis that was eventually to kill him at the age of twenty-five having been present from early childhood), and poverty. Not only that, but his ill health prevented him from being able to partake of the pleasures of the Decadent era to quite the extent that admirers of his erotic art might like to imagine; he could well have answered the (still ongoing) speculation about his sexuality with Alan Bennett's immortal phrase 'There's been something of both in my life, but not enough of either!'
All in all, Beardsley's is a very Brighton story – an exotic facade presented to the word with damp brickwork decaying behind. Charlie and I agreed that while he doesn't come across as a particularly likeable person, his ability to produce such unique, beautiful and disturbing art against such overwhelming odds makes him an admirable one! If you'd like to know more about him, I can thoroughly recommend Matthew Sturgis' book: Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography
You might also enjoy Charlie's account of his shopping trip with Oscar Wilde in Dieppe: http://www.travtasy.com/2017/07/oscar...
It was one of several 'Open Door Events' organised by the Regency Society, taking place at various locations around the City over the course of a week, and our guide was prominent Brightonian and Beardsley enthusiast Alexia Lazou. Her enthusiasm certainly galvanised our merry band as we took the steep incline of the West Hill from Brighton Station to Buckingham Road, where an ornate plaque on a substantial-looking residence informed us that 'Aubrey Beardsley, Master of Line, was born in this House'). From there we took in the (currently derelict) site of the old Brighton, Hove & Sussex Grammar School which he attended as a boy (not, as is often supposed, Brighton College, which was reserved for the 'sons of gentry'); the Church where his parents were married (St Nicholas, oldest in Brighton and proud guardian of a twelfth century font) and Pavilion Gardens where he apparently mis-spent many a leisure hour. Our group then decided to eschew the long hike to Lower Rock Gardens, where Aubrey and his sister Mabel stayed periodically with their Great-Aunt Sarah at no. 21, and the climb up Muesli Mountain (aka the Hanover area) to the Church of the Annunciation where he used to worship, in favour of the Yellow Book Bar on London Road where they serve a lethal gin-based concoction known at 'The Aubrey Beardsley Special'.
We were a great little crowd, around twelve taking the walk dwindling to eight partaking of refreshments; many interesting conversations were started up as we swapped our differing reasons for taking the Beardsley Tour and our various snippets of knowledge about his life and art. Alexia passed round examples of the various stages that went into developing his distinctive artistic style - from very ordinary-looking adolescent sketches and caricatures to the well known ornate black-and-white prints that adorned the walls of the bar - and recommended biographies and further reading material. It was a fun and fascinating experience.
What really stands out for me in retrospect is the struggle that poor Aubrey experienced, as the son of a tradesman, in making his way into the artistic elite of the Decadent era. Unlike his rich patrons (Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Oscar Wilde, Jerome Pollitt etc) he had no independent fortune, and was driven to humiliating measures to obtain commissions for his work; he was dependent upon the kindness of relatives, the generosity of old schoolmasters, the waxing and waning enthusiasm of connoisseurs, the flimsy popularity of journals that showcased his art such as The Yellow Book and The Savoy, to make a living. His father Vincent Beardsley had lost his own modest inheritance to a breach of promise of marriage prosecution, and despite finding employment with various London breweries was unable to support his wife and two children; his mother Ellen was obliged to give piano lessons and French tuition to supplement the family income, and his sister Mabel eventually found work as a moderately successful actress. All his life Aubrey was haunted by the twin spectres of illness (the tuberculosis that was eventually to kill him at the age of twenty-five having been present from early childhood), and poverty. Not only that, but his ill health prevented him from being able to partake of the pleasures of the Decadent era to quite the extent that admirers of his erotic art might like to imagine; he could well have answered the (still ongoing) speculation about his sexuality with Alan Bennett's immortal phrase 'There's been something of both in my life, but not enough of either!'
All in all, Beardsley's is a very Brighton story – an exotic facade presented to the word with damp brickwork decaying behind. Charlie and I agreed that while he doesn't come across as a particularly likeable person, his ability to produce such unique, beautiful and disturbing art against such overwhelming odds makes him an admirable one! If you'd like to know more about him, I can thoroughly recommend Matthew Sturgis' book: Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography
You might also enjoy Charlie's account of his shopping trip with Oscar Wilde in Dieppe: http://www.travtasy.com/2017/07/oscar...
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