The artistic career of Aubrey Beardsley was remarkable for its brevity. In the seven years he was able to draw and write before succumbing to tuberculosis, Beardsley gained a reputation as one of the most controversial artists of his time. The straightforward elegance of his designs, coupled with the artist's bizarre sense of humor and fascination with the grotesque and taboo, both fascinated and offended his Victorian audience. His illustrations embraced features of aesthetics, decadence, symbolism, and especially Art Nouveau. Beardsley's block prints allowed his work to be easily reproduced and widely distributed. The diabolical beauty of his work and his overwhelming presence in English publishing houses quickly made Beardsley the most influential illustrator of his time.
More than mere illustrations, Beardsley's images capture the mood of the accompanying text while critiquing repressive Victorian concepts of sexuality, beauty, gender roles, and consumerism. Beardsley's poster art and essay changed the public's opinion of art and advertising. The two, the artist argued, were not mutually exclusive. His theatrical posters manifested his theory and helped revolutionize poster production in Europe and America. Beardsley borrowed aspects from various artistic movements and adapted them for his own purposes. He appropriated the Decadent themes of decay, death, and eroticism to shock viewers out of their complacency. The delicately intertwined shapes and curved arabesque lines made his work to mark the visual shift from the aesthetic movement to modern Art Nouveau. In addition to his illustrations, Beardsley composed poetry and prose. His later writings were as decadent as his paintings. Beardsley is best known for Under the Hill, an unfinished erotic novel about Venus and Tannhauser, for which he created both the text and accompanying illustrations.
The decadent movement and the aesthetic movement from which it emerged paved the way for modern art. Beardsley's work possesses the decorative qualities of the aesthetic as well as the pessimistic hedonism and macabre humor of the decadent. Beardsley influenced virtually every modern designer after 1900. His designs were particularly important to the development of Art Nouveau. Some other significant artists who took note of Beardsley include Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, and Glasgow School artists such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The theatrical beauty of Beardsley's designs was used in the Hollywood production of Salomé and Leon Bakst's sets for the Ballets Russes. Beardsley's work was regularly honored in Art Nouveau revivals, most notably in the 1960s in Heinz Edelmann's cartoons for the Beatles film Yellow Submarine. He was also included in the collage of the Beatles Sgt Pepper album, suggesting his importance as a major influence on the musical group. Beardsley's work continues to shock audiences today. Most recently, Beardsley's Cinesias asks Myrrhina to coitus Lysistrata was exhibited at London's Barbican in 2007, with access restricted to viewers 18 and over.
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.jpg "Illustration for The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, 1895 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Black Coffee, 1895 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Lady of the Lake telleth Arthur of the sword Excalibur, illustration from")
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.jpg "How Queen Guenever Rode on Maying, illustration from")
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.jpg "Illustration from The Black Cat, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, 1895 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "How King Mark and Sir Dinadan Heard Sir Palomides, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Return of Tannhauser to the Venusberg, from “The Story of Venus and Tannhauser”, 1895 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Lysistrata and his allies defending the access of the acropolis to men by farts by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Chapter heading depicting two peacocks in a garden with a fountain, c. 1893/4 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "La Dame aux Camélias, illustration from \"The Yellow Book\", 1894 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Kiss of Judas, 1893 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Sir Launcelot and the Witch Hellawes, 1870 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "A Faun by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Wagnerites by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Toilet, from The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Frederic Chopin by Aubrey Beardsley")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-220816).jpg "Isolde Drinking the Poison by Aubrey Beardsley")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-272872).jpg "Les Revenants de Musique by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Salome with her mother, Herodias by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Hail and Farewell by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "A catalogue cover from a Second Book of Fifty Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Peacock Skirt, illustration for the English edition of Salome by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), 1893 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Arthurian Legend: Tristan Drinking the Love Philtre (Engraving in The Story of Tristan and His Adventures, Including His Love Story with Isolde, from Sir Thomas Malory, Edition Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, 1893-1894) by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Peacock Skirt. Illustration of „Salome“ by Oscar Wilde - Drawing by Aubrey Beardsley")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-248688).jpg "Woman in a Bookshop, design for a")
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.jpg "Poster for")
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.jpg "How Queen Guenever made her a nun. From")
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.jpg "The Lacedaemonian Ambassadors, for Aristophanes")
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.jpg "Of a Neophyte and how the Black Art was revealed unto him, 1899 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Driving of Cupid from the Garden, preparatory drawing for the cover design of “The Savoy”, no. 3, July 1896 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Arthurian Legend: The fairy Morgane gives a shield to Tristan. Engraving in The story of Tristan and his adventures, which includes his love story with Isolde. The Morte of Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, edition illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "A Repetition of Tristan und Isolde, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Black Cape, Illustration for the English Edition of Oscar Wilde")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-103001).jpg "Fourth tableau of Das Rheingold, (cover design for Savoy No. 6) by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Achieving of the Sangreal, from")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-73385).jpg "The Toilet of Salome, illustration for the English edition of Oscar Wilde")
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_1893_(line_block_print)_-_(MeisterDrucke-1425153).jpg "The Stomach Dance, from")
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.jpg "The Peacock Girl, 1893 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Dreams by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Climax, illustration from")
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.jpg "Arthur and the Strange Mantle, an illustration from")
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.jpg "How Queen Guenever made her a nun, illustration from")
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.jpg "Now King Arthur saw the Questing Beast and thereof had great marvel, from")
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.jpg "La Beale Isoud at Joyous Gard. From")
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.jpg "Design for Title Page of")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-154982).jpg "Design for a Frontispiece to")
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.jpg "Fourth Tableau of Das Rheingold, illustration from")
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.jpg "Merlin, an illustration from")
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.jpg "King Arthur Receiving the Visit of a Young Girl Sent by the Fay Morgane. Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley from Thomas Malory")
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.jpg "Lady Gold")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-569695).jpg "Chapter heading for Le Morte d")
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.jpg "How Sir Bedivere Cast the Sword Excalibur into the Water, an illustration from")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-263126).jpg "Henry Harland by Aubrey Beardsley")
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_Illustrat_-_(MeisterDrucke-950520).jpg "Sir Launcelot and the Witch Hellawes (Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley from Thomas Malory")
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.jpg "Now King Arthur Saw the Questing Beast and Thereof Had Great Marvel, from")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-296430).jpg "A Faun by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "A scene from")
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_illustration_for_Lysistrata_(411_at_-_(MeisterDrucke-1321558).jpg "Aubrey Beardsley Illustration for")
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.jpg "Illustration of the Comedy-Ballet")
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.jpg "Illustration for the story The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, 1894-1895 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Messaline and companion returning from a brothel, c.1894 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Birth from the Calf of the Leg, illustration from")
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.jpg "Salome by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Ellen Terry as Rosamund de Clifford in a production at the Lyceum Theatre, London, of the poetic drama")
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 for the cover of Volume IV of The Yellow Book 1899 - (MeisterDrucke-173478).jpg "Design (Unused) for the Cover of Volume IV of")
 for the cover of Volume IV of The Yellow Book 1899 - (MeisterDrucke-173478).jpg)
.jpg "Chapter heading for")
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.jpg "The Platonic Lament, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Coiffing, from the poem")
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_from_a_Book_of_Fifty_Drawings_-_(MeisterDrucke-1354391).jpg "On Dieppe Beach (The Bathers), from a Book of Fifty Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "La Beale Isoud at Joyous Gard, illustration from")
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.jpg "Signature, from the reverse cover of Salome by Oscar Wilde by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "How King Marke Found Sir Tristram, illustration from")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1665467).jpg "How Morgan Le Fay Gave a Shield to Sir Tristram (detail) by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Black Cape, 1893. by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Flosshilde, Illustration for Das Rheingold, Published in")
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.jpg "How Tristan Drank the Love Potion, c.1894 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Isolde by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Peacock Motif, from Le Morte d")
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.jpg "Don Juan, Sganarelle and the Beggar by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Lady with Cello, from")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-221414).jpg "Frontispiece for")
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.jpg "How La Beale Isoud Wrote to Sir Tristram, Illustration from")
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.jpg "Two Athenian women in distress (Illustration for The Lysistrata of Aristophanes) by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Virgilius the Sorcerer by Aubrey Beardsley")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-184898).jpg "Chapter heading for")
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.jpg "Cover Design for")
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.jpg "Design for Reverse Cover of")
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.jpg "Siegfried, from Act II of")
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.jpg "Erda, illustration for")
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.jpg "The Toilet of Helen by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Les Passades, illustration from")
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.jpg "Design for the Cover of")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1665389).jpg "How Sir Launcelot was Known by Dame Elaine (engraving) by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "Love, c.1894 by Aubrey Beardsley")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1667176).jpg "Tail-piece from")
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1667176).jpg)
.jpg "The fourth tableau of the Rhinegold from a book of fifty drawings by Aubrey Beardsley")
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.jpg "The Dancer")
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_teaches_Arthur_the_existence_-_(MeisterDrucke-1062573).jpg "Arthurian Legend: “The Lady of the Lake, Vivian the fairy, teaches Arthur of the existence of the sword Excalibur”. Engraving in “Le Morte d")
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