Aubrey Beardsley.

Aubrey Beardsley was born on 21 August, 1872, in Brighton, England. Growing up in a middle class family with a piano teacher as a mother, both him and his sister were considered musical and artistic child marvels. At the age of nine he wrote his first play which was proformed by him and others at his school. in 1884 appeared in public as an "infant musical phenomenon", playing at several concerts with his sister. His sister later went on to become an actress.

As a young child he was often sick which was a condition that followed him into his adult years. At nine he had his first reported attack of tuberculosis, the disease which was to reduce him to an invalid several times and finally cause his death.

In 1883 his family moved from brighton to London, where he attended Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School. A year after this his art work was being published in the school newspaper. After leaving school he worked as a clerk in an insurrance office. It wasn't till 1891 that he took up art as an actual profession and in 1982 he started attending art classes at Westminster School of Art. He also travelled to Paris where he fell in love with artist and poster designer Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the obsession with the Japanise prints that had kicked off in paris at the time. this later went on to be major inspiration for his work.

He can definatly be described as an art nouveau artist but his work was probably the most contreversiol of the work that was produced in the era. He was known for his pictures being only black and white, both quite sharp bold colours, where as it was much more common for light colours and pastels to be used. he also used some quite disturbing and erotic themes in some of his work and some have described some of his work as 'grotesque'. He played on this fact and was quoted to say "I have one aim—the grotesque. If I am not grotesque I am nothing."

In 1897 he converted to Roman Catholicism. He begged his publishers to destroy any work that would be considered unholy or obscene but this wish was ignored and his publisheres 'Smithers' continued to sell prints and also forgeries of Beardsley's work. Many think that the reason he had such a turn of heart was because of worries he faced due to his illness and fear of dying and what would come next, if anything does.

His private life and sexuality has been constantly questioned. Beardsley was associated with the homosexual clique that included Oscar Wilde. Most people believed that he was asexual (not interested in having a relationship with anyone, man or woman) which would make sense because of his re-occuring chronic illness and his devotion to his work. Some rumors came out that he had an inncestual relationship with his older sister mabel and that she misscarried with his baby. During his entire career, Beardsley had recurrent attacks of tuberculousis. He suffered frequent lung hemorrhages and was often unable to work or leave his home. 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.

Here are two of his more controversial works. I think it can be agreed that as an artist he is very good at what he does but I am not sure if I particularly enjoy his images. They are interesting to look at but for me personally they leave me feeling quite perverse, especially the ones featuring genitalia. But it can be questioned weather this is because it is disgusting or because society has made me feel like it should be.