Postcard History

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley

Very few things in life are certain, however from the instant this 30-card set of postcards found its way to the editor’s desk here at Postcard History, I certainly found them off-putting. The set features the art of Aubrey Beardsley, an English illustrator and author who died at age 25 from a lung hemorrhage caused by tuberculosis.

Initially I felt sorry for Beardsley; having lived as long as I have, I appreciate the joys of life, but I despair for those whose life is cut short by disease, accidents, or violence.

Until seeing these cards there has never been an occasion for me to see, read or hear the name Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (August 21, 1872 – March 16, 1898), so my research began immediately. Sadly, it nearly ended just as soon, because one of the first things I read about Mr. Beardsley was that he once said, “I have one aim. The grotesque! If I am not grotesque, I am nothing.”

Saying things like this about himself most likely caused others to make equally unkind remarks about him. Oscar Wilde, who knew him well, said, “He has a face like a silver hatchet, and grass green hair.” Even so, Beardsley was meticulous about himself and his attire; he wore only dove-grey suits, hats, ties, and yellow gloves. Frequently he appeared at his publisher’s office,” so wrote Stanley Weintraub in his book, Aubrey Beardsley, Imp of the Perverse, “in a morning coat and court shoes.”

“Beardsley’s art comes in one flavor – black,” wrote one London critic. That critical review suggested that in his short life he established a reputation as one of the most accomplished – and controversial – illustrators of his day.

As a controversial artist of the “art nouveau” era, his fame came to a point at which his dark and perverse images and grotesque erotica became a hallmark of everything in his life, until his death.

A perfect example is his illustration for The Pierrot Library, a collection of his drawings illustrating emotions. This one shows a coquette who displays little concern as she is spirited away by her lover’s rival. [1894]

Beardsley’s famous erotic illustrations, includes his ten drawings for Oscar Wilde’s play Salome, which eventually premiered in Paris in 1896. In his depictions of Salome and John in a simple conversation, she spares no shame as she flaunts herself before him and later as she kisses the lips of his severed head.

Performances of Salome were prohibited in England because of the graphic depictions of Biblical characters. The first London appearance of the work (a private event, by invitation only) took place nearly five years after Beardsley’s death in May 1905.

A total of ten plates were prepared for the English language edition of the play, including, The Woman in the Moon, The Peacock Skirt, The Black Cape, The Platonic Lament, Enter Herodias, The Eyes of Herod, The Stomach Dance, The Toilette of Salome, The Dancer’s Reward, and The Climax.

The ban on public performance of Salome was not lifted until 1931. The last “private” production, earlier that year, featuring the “dance of the seven veils” choreographed by Ninette de Valois, was judged “creepily impressive” by The Daily Telegraph.

In other incidences when Beardsley exhibited his vulgar proclivities, he successfully, but with much controversy, attempted to illustrate projects such as a publisher’s reissuance of several Wagnerian opera libretti (Siegfried in 1893), and an 1896 edition of The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope.

Pope’s pseudo-heroic poem in which Petre cuts off a lock of Arabella’s hair without permission, could have and was often considered a minor incident in life, but in this accounting, it provoked an argument that was followed by a breach between two families of very high social standing. The poem’s title does not refer to an extreme rape, but to an earlier definition of the word derived from the Latin meaning “to snatch, to grab, or to carry off.”

Beardsley’s art is not for everyone. He had a unique style, but a devil-may-care technique. His self-imposed artistic style limited the experience of the viewer and is equally annoying to those who cherish a visual language that is innovative. Beardsley also kept too tight a rein on the emotional response he attempted to illicit.

Many viewers find that Beardsley’s artwork evokes deep emotion or a shocked response but through his use of vulgarisms he stoops to the lowest level of caring and concern. Which brings us to a place where we can suggest, he was fine for his era, but he has little to offer beyond his own generation. Sadly, he has little to offer contemporary art experience.

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This set is a modern, continental postcard grouping published by Magna Books. Are you ready for this? Magna Publishing was an American publishing company headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey. It was founded in 1975, and the company published several magazine titles and was until December 2015 one of the largest publishers of pornographic magazines in the United States.