Aubrey Beardsley POI #2
Having made reference to Persons of Interest as opposed to personal heros in the last post it reminded me of this portrait I did of the british Art Nouveau oddity known as Aubrey Beardsley .
As I mentioned to Bill I've only ever painted two visual artists; Beardsley and Namatjira, both back in 2003.
I picked up a very old book of Beardsley's work back in ther 80s. Fascinating and intricate fine pen work, oft depicting the grotesque, bizarre and erotic.
I found this famous portrait in a book of Frederick H Evans' photography work around about the same time.
Evans was a great british photographer at the turn of C20.
His cathederal interior photography is magnificent and worth looking up.
Beardsley was something of a living caricature I painted this in 2003 on a 76x56 sheet of Arches.
posted by David Burge at
7:23 PM
6 Comments:
Looks mostly wet-on-wet. I love the flow, softness, and subtle hues of this!
I love this one, always have! It's perfect, Dake. I'm mostly familiar with him for those wildly imaginative illustrations in Lysistrata which provided endless entertainment for me as a kid. (it was a coffee table book in our home :) )
It was done too long ago for me to remember how I did it David but I think you're probably right.
Hey Nick, Your parents have exotic tastes no doubt.
His illustrations are certainly "wildly imaginative".
He must have been into the fungi commonly savoured by the students at the elite schools around England.
The bizarre and surreal was at it's social best back in those days.
This is great Dave..I always had the idea that Beardsley was a bit decadent and your image lets me think I was right...those long sensitve fingers..
Beautifully done!
What a wonderful artist he was!
I have just been re -reading Nick's comment. He reminds me of not only Beardsley's talent but also of some of the comic book illustrators from when I was a child.Their illustrations were generally what attracted me ...some of the content was a bit above me at the time, but the art work was fantastic. Although the names of the artists escape me..some comics were "Mandrake", "Jane" "The Phantom"
Hey Sandy, I think
'Decadent' is on the money. Beardsley was possibly head boy of Oddities College, born to draw perfectly perfect lines.
Sidney H Sime was another illustrator of fantasy who's worth looking up from that era as well I have one of his books back in Perth. Odilon Redon did some work much in the same vein as well.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home