Aubrey Beardsley Lines
If you’ve heard of 19th century fin-de-siècle literary dandy Oscar Wilde, it’s time to meet his artistic counterpart, Aubrey Beardsley. Maybe you’ve encountered his Salomé series without realising it. This talented and audacious illustrator mastered sinuous lines and bold natural forms.
Aubrey Beardsley, image via the Tate Britain.
Beardsley stood for refined decadence, a live-fast-die-young lifestyle, a love of the bizarre and scandal. His works are full of verdant nature, fantastical worlds, mythical characters, elegant figures and sexual innuendo. He was bold, subversive, and talented. He had a fantastically productive 5-year run, creating over 1,000 ink works, before dying young from tuberculosis.
Detail, Aubrey Beardsley, image via the Tate Britain.
Beardsley’s line work is especially important to note - his control and curation are mesmerising. His strokes vary between feather-light lines and confident depths. He oscillates between meticulous pointillism and fluid forms. The sinuous lines and organic forms are so beautiful, and absolutely worth spending time studying!
Aubrey Beardsley, image via the Tate Britain.
Packed with twisting and tangling overgrown nature, his work is the 1890’s origin of the future sinuous Art Nouveau movement and trippy 1960’s/70’s Psychadelia.
Detail, Aubrey Beardsley, image via the Tate Britain.
Detail, Aubrey Beardsley, image via the Tate Britain.
I explored the the Beardsley exhibit at the Tate Britain in London, and my mind was spinning. Beardsley’s mastery is greatly found in his detail, so after one and a half hours of browsing, I had to call it a day. If there was a coffee break, I’d have gladly spent the whole afternoon absorbing his mesmerising work. Catch a glimpse of the exhibit here below: