Beardsley, Aubrey

views updated

Beardsley, Aubrey (1872–98) English illustrator. His highly wrought, stylized, black-and-white drawings epitomize the English art nouveau style. Associated with the Decadent writers of the 1890s and the aesthetic movement, Beardsley illustrated the first four volumes of the Yellow Book (1894–95) and Oscar Wilde's play Salome. His mainstream work, such as Isolde (1895), enabled him to produce more outrageous, erotic ‘Japonesque’ illustrations.

More From encyclopedia.com