John J. Burns Library
Archives and Manuscripts Dept.
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467-3801
www.bc.edu/burns/
Aubrey Beardsley Collection
1890s and undated
MS1997-11
Last Update: April 30, 2010
2
COLLECTION OVERVIEW:
AUTHOR: Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent (1872-1898)
SOURCE: Unknown
COLLECTION #: MS1997-11 (prints)
ACESSION DATE: 1997 October 2
SOURCE: Mark Samuels Lasner; Gift
ACCESSION #: MS1998-39 (scrapbook)
ACESSION DATE: 1998 December 18
QUANTITY: .25 linear foot (1 box)
LOCATION: Level 2, British and British Catholic Authors
PROCESSED BY: Dana Lawton, 2005; updated by AnneMarie Anderson, 2010
LANGUAGE: English
RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS: Collection is open for research.
COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS: Though the copyright interests have not been transferred to
Boston College, most of the items in the collection are in the public domain. For further
information, see the section on copyright in the Burns Library’s Rules for the Reading
Room.
ABSTRACT: This collection is comprised of seven prints of Beardsley illustrations, an obituary,
and a sizeable scrapbook of clippings and reproductions of Beardsley illustrations. The
prints include illustrations created for Edgar Allan Poe short stories, the Pierrot’s Library
series, and The Studio art journal.
PREFERRED CITATION: Identification of item, Box Number, Folder Number, Aubrey
Beardsley Collection, MS1997-11, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.
3
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was born on August 21, 1872, in Sussex, England, the son of Vincent
Paul Beardsley and Ellen Agnus. During his early childhood Beardsley felt alienated from his
father and spent much time with his older sister, Mabel, and his mother. At the age of seven,
Beardsley was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a disease that plagued him for the remainder of his
short life.
In 1888 Beardsley worked as a clerk in London; however, he had artistic aspirations and,
beginning 1891, attended the Westminster School of Art. Following his artistic training,
Beardsley began illustrating for art journals. His unique work, characterized by dramatic blacks
and whites, was noticed by J.M. Dent, who asked Beardsley to illustrate a new publication of
Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. Beardsley’s artistic style lent itself to a newly developed method of
printing that involved the use of metal engraving blocks instead of wooden blocks. The small and
intricate lines of Beardsley’s designs were well preserved in the metal blocks after repeated
printings. In addition to providing drawings for Dent’s Morte d’Arthur, Beardsley illustrated
several other publications including Oscar Wilde’s Salomé (1894), Alexander Pope’s Rape of the
Lock (1896), Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (1896), and Ben Jonson’s Volpone (1898).
While artistically innovative, Beardsley’s designs were often erotic and cruel in emphasis. The
controversial nature of his illustrations, combined with his decadent social life, drew critical
speculation about his own personal lifestyle. In 1897, in the face of his declining physical health
and at the urging of his sister, Beardsley converted to Catholicism and demanded that his friends
and family destroy his obscene drawings. His demands were ignored.
Aubrey Beardsley succumbed to tuberculosis in 1898 at age twenty-five. Beardsley’s work
enjoyed fame after his death, and in the 1960s, his work became part of popular culture,
appearing on posters, T-shirts, lunchboxes, and even the cover of the Beatles’ 1966 Revolver
album.
Source:
Crawford, Alan. “Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent (1872–1898).” Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP,
2004. 2 Nov. 2005 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1821>.
4
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE:
This collection is comprised of seven prints of Beardsley illustrations, an obituary, and a sizeable
scrapbook of clippings and reproductions of Beardsley illustrations. The prints include
illustrations of Edgar Allan Poe short stories, the Pierrot’s Library series, and The Studio art
journal.
INVENTORY AND CONTAINER LIST:
Box Folder
1
--
1
1
1
2
1
1
3
4
1
1
5
6
Title, Date
Vellum cover with gold-stamped design, original container for prints of illustrations
for Edgar Allan Poe short stories, circa 1895
Prints of illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe short stories, circa 1895
The Masque of the Red Death, circa 1895
The Murders in the Rue Morgue, circa 1895
The Fall of the House of Usher, circa 1895
Black Cat, circa 1895
Print of the book spine design in “Pierrot’s Library” series, photographic negatives
and contact sheet of the same, circa 1896
Aubrey Beardsley’s obituary from The [London] Times (photocopy), 1898 March 18
Print of yellow-and-black variation of the “Children’s Books” advertisement, circa
1894
Proof print of The Studio cover, circa 1893
Scrapbook of clippings and reproductions of Beardsley illustrations (133 items),
undated