Customer Reviews

Collected Drawings of Aubrey Beardsley

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This book has ALL of Beardsley's work accompanied with insightful text. Beware, though -- some of his drawings are of extremely crude sexual nature -- definitely not a book you want on your coffee table when you have in-laws coming in from out of town.

Beardsley did much of his work for shock value, much like his buddy Oscar Wilde, so this is not necessarily TASTEFUL nnudity here. For those who can stomach it though, acquainting yourself with this artist is worthwhile.

Well, the complete work would be a very thick book. This one gives plenty to enjoy, though. It starts with conventional drawings or lithos, including pieces ("Hail Mary" and "Francesca di Rimini") that capture a romanticism like the Pre-Raphaelites. Just a few pages in, though, we see illustrations from "Le Morte D' Arthur." These illustrations seemed to be the turning point in his career. When you see the whole set of work done for that book, you can see Beardsley's work mature into the style considered his signature. (It seems odd to talk about stages in a career that was so tragically short.)

Beardsley's work is commonly placed within Art Nouveau. It certainly displays the flowing curves and sensuality of that movement. I find the hard contrasts of black ink and open white atypical of Nouveau, and immediately recognizable. He took its sensuality well beyond normal bounds, as seen here in some pairs of his drawings, the original and the bowdlerized forms. His "Lysistrata," sampled here, exaggerates that into satiric bawdy surrounded by effete clothes (what few there are) and manners. The "Earl Lavender" drawing hints at some of the extremes in his "Under the Hill", which is not represented here.

The reproductions are large and legible, making the images easy to enjoy in their detail. I fault this book only for lack of an index or table of contents, making specific images hard to find, and for attributions that seem incomplete. Dates, in particular, are missing from nearly all of the works, even in the extensive catalogue in the back of the book. This is really a picture book, though, and the pictures are all that the reader could hope for.

-- wiredweird

What a terriffic book! Loved the black and white drawings, and the history of this designer. I wish I could have gotten a book jacket, but,
well, you sometimes have to forfit. Price was right. Arrived in Speedy time and It is a keeper.