Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 1872 – 16 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His drawings in black ink, influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. 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.

He was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned for his dark and perverse images and grotesque erotica, which were the main themes of his later work. His illustrations were generally in black and white against a white background. Some of his drawings, inspired by Japanese shunga artwork, featured enormous genitalia. His most famous erotic illustrations concerned themes of history and mythology; these include his illustrations for a privately printed edition of Aristophanes' "Lysistrata" and his drawings for Oscar Wilde's play "Salome", which eventually premiered in Paris in 1896. Other major illustration projects included an 1896 edition of "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope.

Learn more about Beardsley's life here.