Beardsley was one of the most famous and notorious artists in the 1890s
some people call the 1890s the Beardsley years
he almost exclusively worked in pen and ink
I love that quote by Beerbohm
he says that Beardsley is always seeking the
immediate echo of a great notoriety
by that I mean that Beardsley is always seeking fame
both positive for his drawings but also perhaps the scandalous and the
shocking and the duality between those two
he was diagnosed with tuberculosis
when he was seven he died when he was only 25
interestingly I think his
disease was a driving force at the same time
I love how Simmons said you know
he had the fatal speed of those who are to die young
and that absorption of a lifetime in an hour
it's amazing to think that he did a thousand drawings
in such a short time
I think you really get a sense of
how he's constantly drawing and producing new work
there was this first major commission to do La Morte Darthur
and he worked on this for two years
it's at that point that he can stop working as a clerk finally
and dedicate himself to his drawings
although we've brought together all
these original drawings most people wouldn't have known them at all
and actually it would have been the prints it would have been -
- yes, yes that's the paradox
he was known for the prints and the drawings are so much more beautiful
I mean they have this depth and you can see the quality of the ink
you have this outstanding beauty
but he also distorts features, he distorts lines
he plays on scale
and this is why he's so provocative and subversive
you're seduced by the beauty of his line
but at the same time there are some strange details
which caused uproar with his contemporaries
yeah, the more you look, the more you see
I love with Morte Darthur where you can see these kind
of spider webs coming in and the treble clefs and of course the phallus
yes, the phallus, of course!
always
the Victorians have this reputation for being repressed
and having the strict moral code
and of course Beardsley doesn't really care
about the establishment and he's actually quite keen to embrace notoriety
which is not healthy as far as the Victorian contemporaries are concerned
he kind of cultivated this image of effortlessness as well didn't he
and hid the way he worked so that it always appeared like he was this suave
decadent figure
one of the key works that Beardsley did was
he was the art editor of the Yellow Book
this was this new art and literature magazine and it was known for its audacity
the yellow cover in itself was deliberately provocative
it was a really fashionable color
but it also was the cover that French novels
French erotic novels
naughty French novels!
yes!
had as their wrapper
so it would've immediately signified to people
that this was something that was going to be something shocking
Victorians felt that Beardsley was quite a shocking illustrator
because he showed that side of London
the nightlife, the decadent lifestyle
but also independent women
there was a thirst for freedom for women in the 1890s
we have this special room in the exhibition
which we call the boudoir
and contains through the Curiosa
the most explicit, sexually explicit works that Beardsley did
Beardsley was notorious for his Salome illustrations
which shocked many of his contemporaries
it's interesting to think that Beardsley was illustrating
Wilde's really famous play, but it was actually Beardsley's illustrations that cut through
and really almost stole the show
this association with Oscar Wilde backfired when Wilde was arrested for
gross indecency with male persons
it was illegal to have same-sex relationships in the 1890s
Wilde was arrested and people assumed that Beardsley also engaged
in same-sex relationships
of course, and it didn't help that Wilde was seen
carrying a yellow book under his arm at his arrest and although it wasn't
actually the Yellow Book, it was a French novel
that was enough to kind of confirm the
connection between Wilde and Beardsley in the public imagination
Beardsley was faced with this moment when he lost his income
he had to sell his house in Cambridge street in Pimlico
and he moved to Diep for a time
it really was a moment
where he wasn't sure how he would get through this
yes and from that point
onwards until he dies he's got no reliable income
it's fantastic to think that by the time he died when he was 25
he was famous internationally
and we have this drawing by Picasso in the exhibition
Picasso read an obituary in a Barcelona magazine
and that's how he discovered Beardsley and was really transfixed by his black and white style
He wrote how impressed he was with his artist
Beardsley didn't really belong to any school, he was one of a kind
I think he often gets kind of belittled as this kind of schoolboy humor
and he does have a humour and he's
interested in all types of sexuality, but he's incredibly knowledgeable
it's really fascinating to see what different artists and different generations take from Beardsley
and particularly his association with the counterculture
it's interesting to see how he gets picked up for example in the 60s and with psychedelic art
bands are using his designs in their own artwork
and beyond his art I think there was this live hard die young quality to his life and to the
legend that was created the 1890s
in many ways there's a timelessness to his drawings because they are so distinct
Beardsley could be a contemporary artist
he has this ability to still talk to people, this boldness about his work that still appeals to people
and will continue for generations on end