A free virtual exhibition of 15 works by Aubrey Beardsley that you can walk through in your browser, on desktop or phone, with nothing to install. The room brings together his border designs for Le Morte d'Arthur and his macabre illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe, including The Black Cat, alongside portraits, a poster for The Yellow Book and the color lithograph Isolde.
About Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898) was an English illustrator born in Brighton, and one of the most distinctive artists of the 1890s. Largely self-taught, he was working as an insurance clerk in London when the publisher J. M. Dent commissioned him to illustrate a new edition of Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, published in parts in 1893–94. Hundreds of borders, initials and chapter headings made his name. In 1894 he became art editor of the quarterly The Yellow Book and illustrated the English edition of Oscar Wilde's Salome, whose daring drawings caused a scandal. He later worked on The Savoy and on Pope's The Rape of the Lock. His style, built from stark contrasts of black and white, sinuous lines and fine dotted detail, drew on Japanese prints and Greek vase painting. Suffering from tuberculosis since childhood, he died in Menton at the age of 25, leaving a body of work that still shapes graphic design and illustration.
Highlights in this room
Praying Angels and Poppies
A border design for Le Morte d'Arthur, in which angels and poppy heads twist into a dense, symmetrical frame. The plant forms owe something to the decorative books of the Arts and Crafts movement, but the line is already Beardsley's own. It shows how much invention he poured into what could have been routine ornament.
The Black Cat
Made for a Chicago edition of Poe's tales, this drawing shows the cat of the story perched on the head of its master's murdered wife. Large areas of solid black make the image feel claustrophobic. It is a lesson in how little a drawing needs to be frightening.
The Toilet, from The Rape of the Lock
Pope's heroine Belinda sits at her dressing table, attended by a maid, in a room crowded with patterned fabrics and tiny ornaments. Here Beardsley traded his bold blacks for a fine, dotted line inspired by eighteenth-century engraving. The result is witty, airy and extraordinarily precise.
Poster for The Yellow Book, Volume IV
The Yellow Book was famous for its covers and advertising as much as its contents, and Beardsley designed them while he was its art editor. Printed in black on the publication's signature yellow, his posters turned a literary magazine into a fashionable object. It is a reminder that he was a commercial designer as well as an illustrator.
How to enjoy the exhibition
- Read the line, then the black. Walk up to a work and notice how Beardsley uses either a hair-thin line or a solid mass of ink, with almost nothing in between.
- Look for the white space. Large empty areas are part of the design. Stepping back shows how the blacks and whites balance across the sheet.
- Spot the dotted line. In the later drawings, rows of tiny dots replace shading. They are easiest to appreciate up close.
- Compare early and late. Click a work to read its label and date, then move from the early Virgilius the Sorcerer to the Poe illustrations to see how quickly his style matured.
- Think about reproduction. Most of these drawings were made to be printed as line blocks in books, so the clarity of the line was a practical necessity.
If you enjoy this room, continue to the William Morris virtual exhibition, whose Kelmscott Press books set the standard that Dent's Morte d'Arthur answered, or the Alphonse Mucha virtual exhibition for the color side of 1890s design.
Create a room like this for your own work
This room was built with Xibit360, the same tool any artist can use. You can light and frame each work individually, set the mood with themes and layouts, exhibit video works alongside still images, and embed the finished room on your own website. An illustrator can present a book project as a sequence, with each drawing labeled in the order it appears. It is free to start, and upgrades are one-time purchases, with no subscription.
Know an artist who should see this?
If you know an illustrator, comic artist or ink artist whose work deserves a space like this, send them this page. They can walk through the room above to see what is possible, and picture their own work on the walls.
FAQ
Is the Beardsley virtual exhibition free?
Yes. The exhibition is free to visit in your browser, and you can walk through all 15 works at your own pace.
Can I view it on my phone?
Yes. The same walkable space works on desktop and on phone, so you can explore the room wherever you are.
Are Beardsley's Poe illustrations in the exhibition?
Yes. The room includes four of his illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe: The Black Cat, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Masque of the Red Death.