Aubrey Beardsley

An Aubrey Beardsley essay may discuss anything related to the artist. A writer may want to deal with his life as an illustrator and as an author. Another would be to research on how he ends up creating his controversial art in the form of perverse images. Beardsley is an interesting person so writing an Aubrey Beardsley essay will not fall under the impossible category.

If a writer wants an Aubrey Beardsley essay talking about his life, it will be necessary to include his childhood background that relates him to being the artist that he was. For example, as a child, Beardsley is already inclined to the arts. He played in several concerts with her sister. He drew for a school paper when he was about 12 and eventually took art as a profession. With simple details such as these, it is obvious that Beardsley’s life pretty much revolved around art. However, an essay dealing with his life should be more detailed. An Aubrey Beardsley essay could also share something about his methods of creating art. He became controversial because of his grotesque and erotic form of art. This would be a great thing to research on – factors that led Beardsley in forming sexually related images as art form. If you search for his artworks, it obviously shows the private eccentricity of his personality. His being private may be depicted by his black and white works, which do not tell much of his personality and emotions. His being eccentric is obvious through his perverse artworks.

When writing an Aubrey Beardsley essay, it is expected to have the same eccentric feel to it. A strong analysis would complement his boldness.

Aubrey Beardsley essay example

This artist who is renowned for his drawings had a characteristic emblem in Japanese woodcuts with emphasis on grotesque. He made significant contribution in Art Nouveau style development before he succumbed to TB infection in 1898 (Harper, 1998). The mention of the artist brings a replay of the Art Nouveau’s dark erotic time with images that were perverse and sometimes controversial. Beardsley’s drawings are an image of controversy just like his own life in which he lived in shadows without succinct definition of his behavior. Analyzing his work is entirely a speculative approach because he least exposed his character in public domain.

Beardsley’s artwork draws a lot from the Japanese art but the fervent inclination to eroticism is his unique attribute. While this could be seen to explain his private life, most of it is only speculated. Most of his drawings such as the Stomach Dance of 1894 and the Peacock Skirt (1894) are some of the examples that emphasized erotic attributes. These drawings depict the sexuality issue during his time during which he was associated with homosexuality. However, he played an important role of depicting the strong element of vulnerability of human sexuality especially women who made obvious appearances in his drawings (also seen in the works of French Symbolists). Amidst all these, his transformation into a devout catholic during his ailment did not stop the selling of his drawings most of which were his artistic interpretations of stories such as the legend of Tannhäuser (Harper, 1998).

Beardsley’s undefined life was hidden in his caricaturist artwork through which he was able to communicate his interpretation of written art that largely expressed vulnerability of human sexuality. His contribution in influencing the world of art cannot be hidden like his own life.