Aubrey Vincent Beardsley; 1872/08/21 — 1898/03/16) — English artist and engraver who created works that were quite provocative for the time. He was not afraid to write frankly and to focus on subjects that were "forbidden" at the time, perhaps because he knew from childhood that he would not live long due to tuberculosis, which at that time was practically a death sentence, especially if it developed at an early age, and so he tried to have time for everything and did not think too far ahead, but simply drew what interested him. In his early illustrations he carefully drew all the small details, but then he became seriously interested in Japanese engraving, especially the works of the famous master Hokusai and other artists, so he moved to pure drawing without drawing the background, but then, at the request of clients, he began to write again in more detail, for example for the cover of the Savoy magazine.
In this article we will talk about Beardsley's engravers and illustrators and his short but illustrious life.
Savoy (magazine cover)
Beardsley was always a little out of this world and downright strange. Perhaps the knowledge that he would surely die at an early age had such an effect on the artist that it determined his motives and actions, but at the same time, at least outwardly, he was not afraid of death, and to the very end, in public and among friends, he did not attach any importance to his illness. He simply lived and was almost always the center of attention. Beardsley himself, however, was not very happy about this state of affairs, because along with the admiration there was also a lot of criticism, even outright hatred and censure. But he always responded to criticism in the quintessentially English way - restrained and witty, pretending not to care. But inside he was probably still worried - he was young, and youth does not imply a philosophical approach to life.
Self-portrait
Aubrey was not handsome, in fact he was awkward, his height was impressive, his face was elongated by his thinness, and his hair was sloppy and eccentric. But as soon as he went anywhere, he had either friends or enemies and detractors, as if he always aroused the most contradictory feelings in people, but never indifference.
Aubrey Beardsley's mother, Helen, was particularly extravagant in her youth, although she was very beautiful. She had many suitors, and she was not embarrassed by their courtship; she willingly entered into relationships, but she did not overstep the bounds of what was permitted at that time. Pretty girls get away with a lot, and Helen was happy to take advantage of that. One day she came to church-there were a lot of people, and she wanted to be in the front row, among the most respectable citizens, and not crowd with the young people at the entrance. So she pretended to be deaf and dumb and went to the front. There was probably a lot of laughter among her friends who knew her well.
Finally, she returned Vincent Bursley's feelings and decided to marry him. But things didn't go well from the start. During the wedding, a severe storm broke out, preventing the newlyweds and their guests from even entering the church through the main gate. They had to make do with a second, narrow door, and many took this as a bad sign. As if they had seen the future. Soon a widow filed a lawsuit against Helen's husband, claiming that he wanted to marry her, but preferred the young flirt Helen. The evidence was there, and so the newlyweds had to sell a considerable portion of their property to give money to the widow and hush up the conflict. The young couple went to live with Helen's parents, who openly disliked her new husband after this incident.
Venus among the gods
The couple then moved to London, where they spent a lot of time in rented apartments and suffered hardships. Helen earned money by giving music lessons and soon became completely disillusioned with her husband and family life in general. All her boundless energy was directed toward her son, and she began teaching him everything she knew and could do. Aubrey was taught music and drawing from an early age, and Helen believed that her gifted son-she carefully encouraged this legend, and perhaps believed it herself-should not read children's books, which she considered too primitive, but serious novels for adults. As a result, some of his contemporaries began to think of Aubrey as a child prodigy, and Helen supported this opinion in every way possible. But he was a perfectly ordinary boy, distinguished among his peers only by his excessive earnestness. Aubrey and his sister Mabel rarely interacted with their peers, which was completely unusual for the time - children of poor parents received their basic socialization skills on the streets. They spent most of their time together, and his sister was the closest person to Aubrey.
Dancer Award
The best time in Aubrey's life was during his studies at the Brighton School. Despite his unusual appearance, he quickly made many friends and took a serious interest in drawing. He even drew in the margins of all his textbooks, and the teachers were amazed at the skill of the drawings and the wealth of small details. In addition to painting, Aubrey was interested in theater and literature, so he was a truly creative person. Therefore, there was no question about his future path in life - Aubrey firmly decided to become an artist.
By 1895, Aubrey was already a well-known illustrator. He had many magnificent drawings to his credit, and the most important were the illustrations for the knightly tales "The Death of Arthur".
Merlin and Nimue
The stories themselves did not have much success with critics, but editions of this book with illustrations by Aubrey are published and enjoy well-deserved popularity even in our time. Art critics recognized the work on illustrations for Oscar Wilde's play Salome as the pinnacle of creativity.
culmination
Aubrey became a respected illustrator, and there was no shortage of commissions. But then trouble came from an unexpected source. Oscar Wilde was put behind bars - in England at the time, sexual orientation was a criminal offense, and he took a book with a yellow cover with him into prison, the contents of which the press did not pay attention to, but they remembered the color of the cover. By an absurd coincidence, Aubrey was working in the editorial office of the magazine "Yellow Book" at that time, and the journalists thought that he was related to the disgraced writer.
Friends came to the rescue - the poet Andre Raffalovich and the publisher Leonard Smithers. Smithers offered Aubrey a job at his magazine, Savoy, and he happily accepted.
Wagnerites
Aubrey was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 7. He was especially bothered by exacerbations in winter, and his health worsened with each passing year. But he did not give up and continued to work, often drawing quite explicit pictures, for example, a series of works about Lysistrata.
Lysistrata addresses the women of Athens
Sensing his imminent death, he moved to the south of France, hoping to live there at least a few more months - it's hard to die young when you still feel you can do so much.
Shortly before his death, Aubrey asked Smithers to burn all of his "indecent" drawings, but Smithers never fulfilled his wish, perhaps because he felt that burning works of art - and that's how he treated his friend's drawings - was completely wrong. But Aubrey didn't care - he was too tormented by tuberculosis, and after a particularly severe attack, the talented illustrator was gone. He was only 25.
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