Aubrey Beardsley was an English illustrator and author born in Sussex, England, on 21 August 1872. Aubrey was very talented from a young age; he was musically gifted and played at concerts with his sister. Beardsley started to draw in primary school, and his works were published in school magazines. In 1892, he studied at the Westminister School of Art for a few months before becoming a professional artist.

Beardsley worked on over 300 illustrations, including numerous book commissions. Aubrey produced cover designs for The Yellow Book magazine, which he co-founded and was the art editor for a while. Aubrey developed a relationship with the Irish playwright & author Oscar Wilde and worked on a few projects with him, including his famous play, Salome.

Aubrey Beardsley was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of 6. However, he had an eventful and controversial career spanning six years. Aubrey fell critically ill when he was seventeen and died in France on 16 March 1898.

What was Aubrey Beardsley Known For?

Aubrey Beardsley was best known for his illustrations. Aubrey was multi-talented; he was a musical prodigy and wrote poems even as an established artist. Beardsley’s art was associated with demonic themes and moral decadence; his association with Oscar Wilde also brought his sexuality to question.

Who was Aubrey Beardsley Influenced By?

Aubrey Beardsley was influenced by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, who put in a good word to ensure his admission at Westminister and urged the artist to consider art professionally. Other influences are Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Professor Fred Brown, his tutor while in school.

What Art Movement was Aubrey Beardsley Associated With?

Aubrey Beardsley was associated with the Aestheticism art movement, and he is a dominant figure in this movement. Aubrey’s work also portrays elements of the Art Nouveau style.

Aubrey Beardsley’s Artwork

Below are some of the artworks of Aubrey Beardsley.

“The toilet” from an Epic Poem by Alexander Pope

 

Isolde

 

A nightpiece

 

A  repetition of Tristam and Isolde

Design for the frontispiece to ‘Plays’ by John Davidson

 

Dreams

 

How Morgan Le Fay gave a shield to Sir Tristam

 

How Queen Guenever made her a nun

 

How Sir Tristram drank of the love drink

 

Illustration to ‘Siegfried’ . Act II

 

Lucians strange creatures

 

The battle of the Beaux and the Belles

 

Climax

 

The dancer’s reward

 

The lady with the monkey

The peacock skirt

 

The return of Tannhauser to the Venusberg

 

The slippers of Cinderella

 

Title page of ‘The Savoy’ , No 1

 

Venus between terminal gods

Virgilius the sorcerer

All Aubrey Beardsley Artwork on Artchive

Artwork Name	Year	Medium
The cover of Tristan and Isolde
The Dancer's Reward	1894	linocut
Hail and farewell	1898
Hail Mary (pencil)		pencil
How Four Queens found Launcelot Sleeping
How King Arthur Saw the Questing Beast
How King Mark and Sir Dinadan Heard Sir Palomides I
How King Mark and Sir Dinadan Heard Sir Palomides II	1894
How King Marke Found Sir Tristram	c.1892 - c.1894
How La Beale Isoud Nursed Sir Tristram
How La Beale Isoud Wrote to Sir Tristram	1892
How Morgan Le Fay Gave a Shield to Sir Tristram	1894
The Beale Isoud at Joyous Gard	1893 - 1894
The Black Cape	1894	indian ink,paper
The Black Cat	c.1894
The Burial of Salome	1894	lithography
The Cave of Spleen	1896
The Comedy of the Rhinegold, frontispiece	1896
The Cover of The Studio Volume 1	1893
The cover of The Yellow Book	1894
How Queen Guenever Made Her a Nun	1893 - 1894
How Queen Guenever rode on Maying I	1893 - 1894
How Queen Guenever rode on Maying II	1893 - 1894
How Sir Launcelot was Known by Dame Elaine I	1893
How Sir Launcelot was Known by Dame Elaine II	1893
How Sir Tristram Drank of the Love Drink	1893 - 1894	indian ink,pencil
Illustration for 'The Rape of the Lock' by Alexander Pope	1896	lithography
Illustration to "Siegfried", Act II	c.1893	indian ink,wash
Incipit Vita Nova	1893
Initial Letter 'V' to Volpone	1898	lithography
The Death of Pierrot	1896
The Examination of the Herald	1896	lithography
The Eyes of Herod	1894	lithography
The Fall of the House of Usher	1894 - 1895
The Fat Woman	1894
The Fruit Bearers	1895 - 1896
The Girl From The Farm	1895
The Kiss of Judas	1893
The Lacedaemonian Ambassadors	1896
The Lady at the Dressing Table	c.1897	wash,ink,paper
Initial M for Ben Jonson His Valpone	1897
Isolde	1895	lithography
Juvenal, frontispiece
Juvenal Scourging Woman	1896
Katharina Klafsky
La Beale Isoud at Joyous Gard	1894	engraving
Lady Gold's Escort	1894	lithography
Lady with Cello		lithography
List of Pictures	1894
Lucians Strange Creatures	c.1893
The Lady of the Lake Telleth Arthur of the Sword Excalibur	1893	lithography
The Lady with the Monkey	1898
The Lady with the Rose	1897
The Landslip		lithography
The Litany of Mary Magdalen
The Mask of the Red Death	1894 - 1895
The Mirror of Love	1895
The Mirror of Music
The Morning Dream
The Murders in the Rue Morgue	1894 - 1895
A Book of Fifty Drawings, front cover
A Child at its Mother's Bed	1895
A Devil in Woman's Likeness	1893
A Devil in Woman's Likeness	1893
Adulterer	1897
Advertisement for Children's Books	1894	lithography
A large Christmas Card	1895
Albert in search of his ideals	1897	lithography
Ali Baba in the Woods	1897	lithography
A Nightpiece	1894	indian ink,wash
Lysistrata Defending the Acropolis	1896
Lysistrata Haranguing the Athenian Women	1896
Lysistrata Shielding Her Coynte	1896
Madame Rejane	c.1897	lithography
Madame Rejane	1894	lithography
Mademoiselle de Maupin	1897
Masked Woman with a White Mouse	c.1894
Max Alvary
Merlin	1893 - 1894	lithography
Merlin and Nimue	1893 - 1894
The Mysterious Rose Garden	1895	lithography
The Platonic Lament	1894	lithography
The Repentance of Mrs...	1895	lithography
The return of Tannhauser to the Venusberg	1895	lithography
The Scarlet Pastorale	1895
The Slippers of Cinderella	1894	pen,ink,watercolor,paper
The Story of Venus and Tannhaeuse, frontispiece	1895
The Toilet of Helen	1895
The Toilet of Lampito	1896
The Toilet of Salome	1894	indian ink,paper
A Nocturne of Chopin	1895
Apollo pursuing Daphne	1896	pen,ink
A Repetition of "Tristan und Isolde"	1896	indian ink
Arthur and the Strange Mantle	1893 - 1894
A Snare of Vintage
A Snare of Vintage	1894
A Suggested Reform in Ballet Costume	1895
Atalanta in Calydon	1897
Atalanta in Calydon with the Hound	1896
At the First Coner	1895
Merlin Taketh the Child Arthur into His Keeping	1893 - 1894
Messalina returning home	1896
Messalina and her Companion	1895
Monochuromes	1895
Moska
Mrs Patrick Campbell	1894	lithography
Mrs Pinchwife Country Wife by Wycherley	1896
Mrs Winifred Emery	1894	lithography
No. 1	1896
No. 2	1896
The Toilet of Salome II	1894
The Toilette of Salome	1894	lithography
The Wagnerites	1894
The Woman in the Moon	1894	indian ink,pencil
The Woman Who Did
The Yellow Book	1894
Third tableau	1896	lithography
Three Musicians
Title page	c.1893
Title page	1894
At The Relton Arms	1895
Ballet of Marionettes I	1894
Ballet of Marionettes II
Ballet of Marionettes III	1894
Bathyllus in the Swan Dance	1896
Bathyllus taking the pose	1896
Birth from the Calf of the Leg	1894	engraving
Black Coffee	1895	lithography
Book illustration	1894
By Edgar Allan Poe
No. 3	1896
No. 5	1896
No. 7	1896
Pierrot and cat, from St. Paul's	1893
Hermaphrodite Among Roses	1894
Of a Neophyte and how the Black Art was revealed unto him		lithography
On Alert	1898
Original sketch for the cover of 'Salome'	c.1894	ink,paper
Oscar Wilde at Work	1893
Page preceding contents list	1895
Title page	1896	lithography
Title page and key monogram of The Mountain Lover	c.1895
Title page of Discords	c.1894
Title page of Grey Ross
Title page ornament for 'The Yellow Book'		lithography
Two Athenian Women in Distress	1896
Venus between Terminal Gods	1895	indian ink,white
Vol .III	1894
Volpone Adoring his Treasures	1898
'Waiting'	1893	lithography
Caricature of a figure in a sunflower dress		lithography
Caricature of Felix Mendelssohn	1896	lithography
Caricature of James McNeill Whistler
Child
Frontispiece to Chopin's Third Ballade	1895	ink,wash,paper
Cinesias Entreating Myrrhina to Coition	1896
Coiffing	1896
Count Valmont	1896	lithography
Cover 1894	1894
Cover and spine 1893	1893
Perseus		ink,paper
Perseus
Pierrot	1896
Pierrot	1896
Pierrot	1896
Pierrot	1896
Pierrot of the Minute	1897	lithography
Poor Folk by Dostoievsky	1894
Portrait of himself in bed	1894	lithography
Portrait of Miss Letty Lind
Withered Spring
Woman in a Bookshop	c.1894 - c.1895	engraving
Yellow Book poster	1894
Cover Design for Ali Baba	1897	lithography
Cover design for 'The Yellow Book'	c.1894	lithography
Cover design to 'The Pierrot of the Minute'	1897	lithography
Creation	1893
Das Rheingold	1896
Design for a Frontispiece to 'Virgilius the Sorcerer'		lithography
Design for end paper of 'Pierrot'	1896	lithography
Design for the cover of 'The Barbarous Britishers' by H.D. Traill	1896	lithography
Design for the front cover of 'The Savoy: Complete in Three Volumes'	1896	lithography
Design for the Frontispiece to "Plays" by John Davidson	1894
Poster
Poster advertising 'A Comedy of Sighs', a play by John Todhunter	1894
Poster advertising 'The Spinster's Scrip'		lithography
Poster of Girl and a Bookshop
Publicity poster for 'The Yellow Book'
Puck on Pegasus	1894
Raphael Sanzio	1892
Rejane	1894
Salome on Settle	1894
Design of Initial S
Design of Initial V
Design of Initial V
Design (unused) for the cover of Volume IV of 'The Yellow Book'	c.1895	lithography
Don Juan, Sganarelle and the Beggar	1896	lithography
Dreams	1894
Erda	1896
Et in Arcadio Ego	1896	lithography
Excalibur in the Lake	1893
Ex-Libris by John Lumsden Propert	1894	lithography
Salome with Her Mother, Herodias	1894	lithography
Sappho	1898
Scarlet Pastorale	1894
Seated Lady
Self-portait	c.1894
Self-portait
Self-portait	1892
illustration for Act II of Siegfried	c.1892 - c.1893	ink,paper
Singer
Sir Launcelot and the Witch Hellawes	1894
Front Cover	1897
Front Cover	1896
Front Cover	1897
Front Cover and spine of Le Morte Darthur	1893
Front Cover for The Yellow Book Vol. V
Frontispiece		engraving
Frontispiece for 'The Yellow Book: An Illustrated Quarterly'	1894	photography,paper
Frontispiece to "The Pierrot of the Minute"	1897
Full and True Account of the Wonderful Mission of Earl Lavender, frontispiece	1895
Garcons de Cafe	1894	lithography
Small Poster	1895
Smithers	1896
The Abbe Fanfreluche	1895
The achieving of the Sangreal	1893 - 1894	graphite,ink
The Artist' Bookplate
The Ascention of Saint Rose of Lima	1896
The Barge	1896
The Baron's Prayer
The bathers	1896
The Battle of the Beaux and the Belles	1896	indian ink
Prospectus No. 1	1895
Enter Herodias	1893
The Stomach Dance	1893
The Toilet	1894	The Toilet
Cover Design For Smithers' Catalogue Of Rare Books	1896
Madame Rejane	1894
The Dream	1895-96
The Billet-doux	1895-96
The Ascension Of St. Rose Of Lima	1896
The Climax	1893
The Coiffing	1896	Lithograph
The Peacock Skirt	1893	graphite,Ink on Paper
Frontispiece for Venus and Tannhauser	1895	pen,ink
The Fourth Tableau of Das Rheingold	1896
Contents Page of The Savoy No. 1		Lithograph