Publisher's Synopsis
The first biography for 15 years of Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98), one of the greatest - and most distinctive - artistic geniuses Britain has produced: a quintessential figure of the 'naughty nineties', a defining figure of the fin-de-siècle and notorious friend of Oscar Wilde and Max Beerbohm.
Beardsley's infamous reputation, brief tragic life (he died of tuberculosis aged 25) and instantly recognisable style make him one of the key figures of the Modern Age.
His erotic, decadent, black-and-white illustrations for Oscar Wilde's Salome set the tone of his style: shocking, facetious and cruel. His illustrations for The Yellow Book and The Savoy made them famous, before he fell from grace following the Wilde scandal.
Born in Brighton in 1872 of lower middle-class parents, he spent a miserable year in a London insurance office before being 'discovered' by Edward Burne-Jones.
