The Art of Aubrey Beardsley

A concise critical essay combined with a rich selection of plates recounts the artist's brief career, pairing biographical reminiscence with close readings of key works and commissions. The text examines characteristic techniques such as sinuous line, stark black-and-white contrasts, and decorative ornament, and traces recurring motifs from theatrical and literary illustrations to book-covers and designs for ballet and opera. Attention is given to thematic tensions between the grotesque and the beautiful, erotic suggestion and stylized form, and to the interplay of medieval and foreign decorative influences. The volume intersperses commentary with numerous reproductions that illustrate the critic's observations.