Beardsley, with his infamous reputation, tragic life and instantly recognisable style, is one of the paradigmatic figures of the Modern Age, who worked hard to fashion his persona. Born in Brighton in 1872 of lower-class parents and diagnosed a consumptive at the age of seven, Beardsley quickly established himself as a precocious talent. His erotic, decadent illustrations for Oscar Wilde's "Salome" set the tone of his style: by turn shocking, facetious and cruel. Elongated and androgynous himself, he was readily confused with his own degenerate pictures. Sex suffuses his art and accounts for the mixture of fascination and horror with which his pictures were viewed by contemporaries.
- ISBN10 0006550568
- ISBN13 9780006550563
- Publish Date 1 March 1999 (first published 16 March 1998)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 5 July 2003
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
- Imprint Flamingo
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 416
- Language English
- URL http://harpercollins.co.uk