Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Beardsley was an English artist whose name you might not know, although you may recognize his work.

He was a member of the Aesthetic Movement, where artists prized appearance in media including art, music, and literature over function. Contemporaries in this movement included William Morris, Oscar Wilde, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. You can experience an example of this closer to home by viewing the Peacock Room by James Abbot McNeill Whistler at the Sackler Gallery in DC. Beardsley’s signature style was heavily influenced by the Japanese woodcuts that had gained popularity in Europe at the time, his illustrations verging on caricatures and reflecting the decadence of the time, and sometimes veering into grotesque erotica satirizing the Victorian view of sex. Beardsley illustrated much of Oscar Wilde’s work and numerous stories in the magazines he co-founded, including The Savoy and The Yellow Book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His association with Wilde along with his eccentric and meticulous style of dress has led Beardsley to be associated with the LGBTQ community, and while an ally, his early death from tuberculosis and his private nature have left his own preferences a mystery. While sometimes considered controversial and nearing pornography, a hallmark of Beardsley’s style was a subtle use of sexuality, and this is reflected in his private life. This fall, Washington College is loaning one of our books from the Special Collections for display at the exhibition, Something Terrible May Happen: The Works of Aubrey Beardsley and Edward “Ned” I.R. Jennings, at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina. If you want to explore more of Beardsley’s works you can start with the library catalog.