Aubrey beardsley brief biography
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Aubrey Beardsley, Art Nouveau’s Controversial Wunderkind
Articles and Features
By Adam Hencz
“I have one aim—the grotesque. If I am not grotesque I am nothing.”
Aubrey Beardsley
Who is Aubrey Beardsley?
Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898) was a controversial English graphic artist and illustrator, who despite his tragically short life became a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement and is considered as the most influential master of Art Nouveau graphics. His drawings typify fin de siècle English decadence from the end of the 19th century and are characterised by elaborate composition and definite, refined lines, from which erotic, cruel and ironic contents unfold. Amongst others, he explored themes such as sexual identity and is best known for his commission as an illustrator for Oscar Wilde’s play Salomé. Beardsley’s contribution to the development of Art Nouveau and its poster styles was significant.
Biography of Aubrey Beardsley
Born
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Aubrey Beardsley
Biography
Born in Brighton, England on August 21, 1872, Aubrey Beardsley’s artistic talent was not innate from a young age. His father, Vincent Beardsley was from a wealthy family but eventually lost his standing in society and was forced to find employment. His mother, Ellen (Pitt) Beardsley also came from a well-to-do family, and was an accomplished pianist and painter of silhouettes. Before his penchant for drawing, Aubrey had a passion for music which followed him throughout his life. At age seven, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and had to be sent away to a school in Sussex to regain his respiratory strength. In 1883, Vincent Beardsley accepted a position in London, where Aubrey and his sister, Mabel were encouraged to give piano recitals to earn extra money. A year later in 1884, financial difficulties forced Vincent and Ellen to send Aubrey and Mabel to live with their great-aunt Pitt in Brighton. Always close friends, Aubrey and Mabel spent
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Aubrey Beardsley: (1872–1898)
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 1872 – 16 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author.
His drawings in black ink, influenced bygd the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasised the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. Elected to the New English Art Club in 1894, he was a leading figure in the aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James 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 aged just 25.
Early Life
Beardsley was born in Brighton in 1872. In 1883 his family settled in London, and in the following year, he appeared in public as an ‘infant musical phenomenon’, playing at several concerts with his sister. In 1885, he began to attend Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School, where he spent the next kvartet years. His first poems, drawings, and carto