The erotic muse Book

What came to be called art nouveau, or art deco, was in part an inspiration of Aubrey Beardsley, whose illustrations came into vogue when I was young, though many of them were not reproduced as being too scandalizing. Little or nothing was written about the artist, except for some suppressive statements equating him with the decadent absinthe-drinking crowd around Oscar Wilde.

So I was delighted to find this sympathetic, witty biography that goes into quite a bit of detail about Beardsley's very short life. Sturgis draws on numerous period references, letters, and of course publications, careful to point out the many anecdotes that are probably spurious.

The truth is, very little is known about Beardsley's inner life: very early on he developed a persona along with his art, though he consistently referred to himself as asexual, and "a solitaire" in spite of the cynically sexual nature of much of his art.

Sturgis takes care to paint word pictures of the amazing fin de siecle art scene, and Beardsley's many friendships. He does an admirable job of extricating the complexities of Beardsley's and Wilde's relationship, and comments on the development of Beardsley's art with a sharp eye.

Excellent bibliographic notes wind up a satisfactory read.