Portrait of Beardsley by Frederick Hollyer, 1896

1872 – 1898

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was an English illustrator and author. His emphasis of the erotic element is present in many of his drawings, but nowhere as boldly as in his illustrations for Lysistrata which were done for a privately printed edition at a time when he was totally out of favor with polite society. One of his last acts after converting to Catholicism was to plead with his publisher to "destroy all copies of Lysistrata and bad drawings...by all that is holy allobscene drawings."

His publisher, Leonard Smithers, not only ignored Beardsley wishes, but continued to sell reproductions and outright forgeries of Beardsley's work.

Beardsley was active till his death in Menton, France, at the age of 25 on 16 March 1898 of tuberculosis.
He had been received into the Roman Catholic church in March of the previous year.

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About Aubrey Beardsley