AUBREY BEARDSLEY

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 1872 16 March 1898) was an English
illustrator and author.
His drawings in black ink, influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts,
emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading
figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James
A. McNeill Whistler.
Beardsley's contribution to the development of the Art Nouveau and poster
styles was significant, despite the brevity of his career before his early death
from tuberculosis.

I love his pictures a lot. I love his style and I want to be like him future.
In 1892, Beardsley travelled to Paris, where he discovered the poster art of
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the Parisian fashion for Japanese prints, both
of which would be major influences on his own style.
His six years of major creative output can be divided into several periods. He
co-founded The Yellow Book with American writer Henry Harland, and for the
first four editions he served as Art Editor and produced the cover designs and
many illustrations for the magazine. He was also closely aligned with
Aestheticism, the British counterpart of Decadence and Symbolism

Beardsley was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned
for his dark and perverse images and grotesque erotica, which were the main
themes of his later work. His illustrations were in black and white, against a
white background. Some of his drawings, inspired by Japanese shunga
artwork, featured enormous genitalia. His most famous erotic illustrations
concerned themes of history and mythology.
He also produced extensive illustrations for books and magazines (e.g. for a
deluxe edition of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur) and worked for
magazines such as The Studio and The Savoy, of which he was a co-founder.
As a cofounder of The Savoy, Beardsley was able to pursue his writing as well
as illustration, and a number of his writings, including Under the Hill (a story
based on the Tannhuser legend) and The Ballad of a Barber appeared in
the magazine.
Beardsley was a caricaturist and did some political cartoons, mirroring Wilde's
irreverent wit in art. Beardsley's work reflected the decadence of his era and
his influence was enormous, clearly visible in the work of the French
Symbolists.

In 1897 deteriorating health prompted his move to the French Riviera, where
he died a year later on 16 March 1898 at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Menton,
France, attended by his mother and sister. He was 25 years of age and the
cause of death was tuberculosis. Following a Requiem Mass in Menton
Cathedral the following day, his remains were interred in the adjacent
cemetery.