The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-17
BEARDSLEY, THE ARTIST
AFTER DECLINING HEALTH FOR
MONTHS, is DEAD AT MENTONE.
Black and White SI<etcher whose
Originality and BOldness Set the
Critical World by the Ears.

LONDON, March 16.-Aubrey Beardsley,
the artist and draughtsman, died to-cay at
Mentone.
1t had been known for a year or more
that this young artist, just arrived at ma
turity, whose pictures set the world to talk
ing, did not have the health that would IN
sure him a long life. Young Beardsley
career in London is as romantic as the
story of any successful mans rise from
poverty and obscurity into wealth and
fame. He was not much above twenty-one.
and his name has been before the public
but a short time. Yet there can be no
doubt that he will leave distinct impress
sion on some of the methods of art in
whatever light that impression may be re-
garded.
1t now seems to be the general opinion
that Beardsley had genius and the judg-
ment that once set him aside as a mere
appanage and apology for art has been
modified into accepting him seriously. His
work became known about three years ago,
when he illustrated Oscar Wilde's Salome,
and since that time he has been in big de-
mand even by the people who have abused
him. Beardsley's pictures made sensation
and became a fad because they were just
what the jaded public taste demanded. They
y,
original. Nothing had ever been seen like
them in black and white. They conveyed
the idea of an offensive improperly and
yet defied the most searching analysis
They were shocking, yet proper. They
were described at first as simply hideous
tricks in the grotesque, but there was such
fascina ton in them that one ever returned
to be shocked again.
Reardsley was encouraged by Mr.. Watts
ana Burne-Jones saw in his work a force
that found in black and white a method of
Interpretation essentially artistic, because
totally elusive. Yet. with all this refinement
OF method, Beardsleys work was pleasing
10 the public, just because of the fact that
the public couldn't understand why it could
be uckled and pinched at the same time.
Ihe London masters saw in the romantic,
poetic, dreamy boy, dissatisfied soul try
ms TO express itself and accepted his effort.
lie was an artist who knew what correct
drawing meant, drew correctly, and yet was
condemned as faulty. No one now holds that
Beardsley's anatomy is weak.
Personally, this young man who has set
the whole world talking, had no school edu-
cation, but was q cultured man. He read
French. Italian and Spanish as readily as
English and had an ambition to be a writer.
His education in art was limited, but he
described by the slang word 'erratic.H In
all of his work he is the perfection of con-
sistent Inconsistency. He says. when he
poses, Disease is so delightful" That is
the key to the whole mystery Of his success.
a few years ago Beardsley was a
draughtsman for an architect at 5 shillings
a week. His pay was raised to Z shillings a
week and with the extra money he paid for
his instruction. His first notion of the gro
tesque was an imitation of the japanese,
which, like his whole contradictory nature.
was not an imitation of the Japanese. He
liked 1t, worked the idea out and in two
years had founded a new school and had
a thousand imitators.
In conjunction with Beardsley John Lane
started the Yellow Book. and that pecul-
lar magazine made a fine success and was
widely read. Beardsley said that the pub
lie knows nothing of art, and condemned
the fashion of the public posing critic
of pictures when 1t declined to pass judg-
ment on steam engines
In personal appearance Beardsley was not
altogether handsome. He had long, pale
face and red hair. He was five feet nine
inches in height, thin, lanky and almost as
grotesque in appearance as his own pic
lures. He began the study of art when he
was twelve years Of age and was a favor
lite with the other. pupils. He liked the
theater and wrote farceS, which the pupils
played. His most hopeful friends never
saw. in him the promise of the future which
he developed.