Aubrey Beardsley: A slave to beauty

by Stephen Calloway

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, illustrator and writer, was the most notorious and outstanding artist of the fin de siècle. His disturbing erotic drawings shocked the sensibilities of the Victorians and his friendship and collaboration with Oscar Wilde has secured his place in the pantheon of great artists of the 19th century. Jaques-Emile Blanche's portrait of Bearsley, his face 'like a silver hatchet', is the enduring image of this fabulously talented man who died at the age of just 25. Beardsley's most important illustrations were for Wilde's Salome, Popes The Rape of the Lock, The Lysistrata of Aristophanes and Jonson's Valpone. He was art editor of the hugely influential Yellow Book from which he was dismissed following the arrest of Wilde becoming thereafter the creative editor of the 'Savoy' magazine. He went on to write the highly erotic romance The Story of Venus and Tannhauser which was published in an unexpurgated version as Under the Hill. This extraordinary man created some of the most striking and enduring images of the last one hundred years. His influence on Oscar Wilde and his circle was profound and his achievements in such a short life is one of the great literary and artistic stories of the 19th century.

Genres: Art

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Stephen Calloway is a curator of paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

He is an expert on 19th century art, and has made a particular study of the decadent and dandy culture of the fin de siecle.

He staged the V&A's exhibition on the 1890s, 'High Art and Low Life' in 1993, and curated the 'Aubrey Beardsley Centenary Show' in Tokyo and London in 1998.

He writes on the history of taste and lectures widely in England and America.

He also worked, in his role as a consultant on period sytle and manners, with Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich on Jane Campion's film of Henry James' novel 'The Portrait of a Lady'.

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great imports from Great Britain is its production of fancy lads, and Aubrey Beardsley should be their patron saint. Young lads like Jarvis Cocker, Brett Anderson and even Sir David of Bowie all owe a farthing to the legend of Aubrey Beardsley.

Slave To Beauty is more than an art book, but a well-researched and written biography of the legend himself. A sickly young lad who started as a promising writer but dropped for incessant sketching of teachers and Oscar Wilde (pretty funny and worth the price of admission).

The reproductions are clean as a whistle and the paper stock is smooth - would Beardsley want it any other way? A lot of the favorites are here: Salome, The Yellow Book, Morte D'Arthur, and many more. All kidding aside, a self-taught artist who left an indelible mark on the art world before his untimely death at the tender age of twenty-five has all the earmarks of legend.

[Ali Miremadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A chance to revel in the gossip of decadent 1890s London (and Dieppe). And obviously there are the drawings.