Aubrey Beardsley

Arthur Symons

Variously described as grotesque, decadent and erotic, Aubrey Beardsley (1872–98) was the leading illustrator of the late nineteenth-century Aesthetic movement. For just a short seven years before his untimely death, Beardsley’s work captured the spirit of the fin-de-siècle.

Originally published in 1905, this new edition contains twenty-nine examples of Beardsley’s art. All the illustrations have been scanned from a first printing and reproduced single-sided on 150gsm (100 lb text) coated paper to ensure the highest possible reproduction quality.

To complement the artworks, this edition also includes a biographical essay by Beardsley’s close associate, Arthur Symons (1865–1945) as well as a set of helpful explanatory notes compiled by George Cavendish.

Of particular note is the front cover illustration based on Beardsley's design for the first issue (Volume I, April 1894) of the infamous Yellow Book. The yellow-coloured cover emulated the jackets of salacious French novels of the time. Beardsley, as the first art editor, described the magazine as a 'new literary and artistic quarterly' for artists and writers who 'cannot get their best stuff accepted in the conventional magazines', although The Times commented on the ‘repulsiveness and insolence’ of Beardsley's drawing.

240mm × 180mm; 104 pages
29 illustrations
Hardback 978-1-910146-70-5

Published September 2025

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