The Black And White World Of Aubrey Beardsley.
One of my favourite illustrators of all time has to be Aubrey Beardsley. The amount of work that he managed to create within the six years of his professional career is astonishing. He was only twenty-five years old when he died from Tuberculosis in 1898.
But he was not only a prolific artist; he was also an incredibly talented one. He had the ability to draw something and leave it to the audience to add the finer details with their minds. That is, he could create a figure in black clothing and you can see exactly where the outlines of its arms are, even though they have not been drawn.
His work is striking and bold. Even if it is not one of his highly detailed pictures then it will still jump right out from the page. Some of his work is painstakingly drawn with fine lines whilst other pictures are made up from large blank areas of black and white. It was extremely rare for Beardsley to work with colour. But the really mind-bending thing about him was that he did most of his work by candlelight or the light of the moon.
Some of his greatest work is housed in ‘La Morte d’Arthur’ by Sir Thomas Mallory. However, in terms of individual pictures, his most famous ones are probably, ‘The Peacock Skirt’, ‘Salome’ and ‘Bible Women’.
Many of Beardsley’s illustrations have an erotic feel. This ranges from the voluptuous curves of his figures to his blatant use of oversized phalluses. In the later part of his life he became involved with the Catholic Church and tried to have his ‘offensive’ pictures destroyed. His publisher went against his wishes and continued to sell his books without removing or censoring any drawings.
In the Art Nouveau period, Aubrey Beardsley was the master of all illustrators. No one else produced such stunning and powerful monochromatic drawings. His work has continued to inspire other artists’ right up until the present day.
The payment has finally come through for that last online illustrations job that I did, and you all know whats coming! It’s about time to hit the shops and pick up that new pair of newton running shoes that I have been waiting to get. Bev, are you up for a bit of quality shopping time this week?