Exhibition will show the artist had a broader range than the simple black-and-white line drawings for which he is famous
The work of Aubrey Beardsley, master of the stylised ink line, is still popular on postcards and posters 120 years after his short life ended. But a new London exhibition at Tate Britain next year aims to prove that Beardsley had more than one trick as an illustrator and graphic artist.
Five of the artist’s original illustrations for Alexander Pope’s poem The Rape of the Lock are to be shown together for the first time since they were created in 1897, as part of the largest display of his work in Britain for more than 50 years.
“He had so many more styles and artistic influences than people recognise him for today,” curator Caroline Corbeau-Parsons said this weekend. “When you see the detailed lace on these drawings it is clear he could work in different styles We are all familiar with his illustrations for Oscar Wilde’s play Salome, the elongated black-and-white figures, but this exhibition is going to change the way people think of Beardsley.”
His striking black-and-white illustrations for the satirical poem are regarded as among his finest works and demonstrate that he was as capable of delicate detail as of stylish simplicity. Even Beardsley himself did not get to see any of them hanging together in a gallery. The artist was protective of his work and passed his drawings directly to publishers or close friends. From there, they often went to private and university collections in America and are now fragile. As a result they are rarely displayed.
Beardsley, who was born in Brighton in 1872 and died of tuberculosis at the age of 25, titillated late-Victorian London with decadent scenes depicted in his sinuous black-and-white ink lines, often showing the strong influence of Japanese graphic art. But this was only part of the story.
He completed a total of 10 opulent drawings and a cover design for The Rape of the Lock in just a few months while in poor health. Tate Britain will be showing five of the originals in one gallery alongside some of the 18th-century French copper engravings that inspired the work.
The reunited drawings are among more than 200 works brought together for the show, which opens on 4 March.
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