Beardsley, Aubrey

GRAPHICAL ARTIST (ENGLAND)
BORN 24 Aug 1872, Brighton, East Sussex: Buckingham Road - DIED 16 Mar 1898, Menton, Alpes-Maritimes: Cosmopolitan Hotel
BIRTH NAME Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent
CAUSE OF DEATH tuberculosis
GRAVE LOCATION Menton, Alpes-Maritimes: Cimetière du Trabuquet (Protestant part of cemetery)

Artist of the Art Nouveau movement. Aubrey Beardsley was the son of a father who lived from an inheritance. In 1883 the family moved from Brighton to London. At an early age he played musical concerts together with his sister. He worked at the office of an architect and at the Guardian Life and Fire Insurance Company before he became a professional artist under the advice of Edward Burne-Jones and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. In 1892 he studied with Fred Brown at the Westminster School of Art.

He edited the four first editions of the Yellow Book magazine to which he contributed many images. His work was controversial because of its dark and erotical nature. He also produced cartoons and illustrated Oscar Wilde's "Salome". Although he knew many people in the circle around Wilde it is unclear if he had homosexual preferences himself. There was speculation that his older sister Mabel miscarried his child.

His health was weak and he suffered from lung hemorrhages. In March 1897 he joined the Roman Catholic Church and in that same year he moved to the South of France for his health. There he worked at Menton until he died at the Cosmopolitan Hotel of tuberculosis. At the time of his death he was attended by his mother and his sister.

Related persons
• was a friend of Burne-Jones, Edward

Images

The grave of Aubrey Beardsley at the Cimetière du Trabuquet, Menton.
Picture by Androom (01 Dec 2008)

 

The grave of Aubrey Beardsley at the Cimetière du Trabuquet, Menton.
Picture by Androom (01 Dec 2008)

 

Sources
• Beyern, Bertrand, Guide des tombes d'hommes célèbres, Le Cherche Midi, Paris, 2003
• Stephen, Leslie [Sir], Sidney Lee [Sir] [Editors], The Dictionary of National Biography, From the Earliest Times to 1900, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1960
Find-A-Grave
Aubrey Beardsley - Wikipedia


Beaucé, Jean-Adolphe

Published: 14 Mar 2009
Last update: 17 Feb 2022