Browse Items (70 total)

With his mother and sister at his bedside, Beardsley died of tuberculosis on 16 March 1898 in Menton. Following a Catholic funeral, he was buried there. Two months later, a requiem mass was held in London—one way in which friends and admirers dealt…

In his final years, Beardsley came within the orbit of Marc-André Raffalovich (1864–1934)— French-born author of Uranisme et unisexualité (1896), a study of same-sex love—who lived in London and became the partner of the poet John Gray (1866–1934),…

William Rothenstein—who, like Beardsley, was enthralled by contemporary French art and by Japanese prints, erotic and otherwise—was close friends with Max Beerbohm and introduced the two comic artist-writers to one another in 1894. It was not,…

In an 1894 Bon-Mots volume, Beardsley caricatured Max Beerbohm, though without identifying him as the subject of a grotesquely comic drawing. Beerbohm returned the favor in both the April 1896 number of The Savoy and in this book, which was…

With No.64. The legend of Tristan and Isolde’s ill-fated passion had Celtic origins, but Beardsley was more interested in the German opera by Richard Wagner (1813–1883). Characters whose desires compelled them to break their society’s rules held…

With No.65. The legend of Tristan and Isolde’s ill-fated passion had Celtic origins, but Beardsley was more interested in the German opera by Richard Wagner (1813–1883). Characters whose desires compelled them to break their society’s rules held…

Shortly before dying in Menton, France, in 1898, Beardsley famously wrote to Smithers, begging him by “all that was holy” to “destroy” every one of his “obscene drawings,” and Smithers famously lied in return, saying he had complied. On the contrary,…

With No.62. Oddly, Beardsley never illustrated Shakespeare’s plays—A Midsummer Night’s Dream would have seemed an obvious choice, given Beardsley’s Puckish temperament—but did suggest to Leonard Smithers an edition of Volpone (1606) by Ben Jonson…

With No.61. Oddly, Beardsley never illustrated Shakespeare’s plays—A Midsummer Night’s Dream would have seemed an obvious choice, given Beardsley’s Puckish temperament—but did suggest to Leonard Smithers an edition of Volpone (1606) by Ben Jonson…

Among American writers, Edgar Allan Poe was the one with the most profound influence on Beardsley. No single French author had equal impact; Beardsley was a devotee of French literature in general. He enjoyed an excellent command of the language and…