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| Antique print - Exquisite Illustration - “Venus & Tannhäuser” Frontispiece 1948 Aubrey Beardsley Exquisite image by Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (1872 – 1898) - an English illustrator and author. His drawings, executed in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A. McNeill Whistler. Beardsley's contribution to the development of the Art Nouveau style and the poster movement was significant, despite the brevity of his career... Beardsley was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned for his dark and grotesque images: "I have one aim—the grotesque. If I am not grotesque I am nothing." Wilde said he had "a face like a silver hatchet, and grass green hair." (Wikipedia)This beautiful illustration was the frontispiece to Beardsley’s unfinished erotic novel Venus and Tannhäuser (the medieval legend of Venus, goddess of love, and the knight Tannhäuser) which was later published as "Under the Hill" in The Savoy in 1896. Exquisite Art Nouveau floral decorative motifs, with fruit, flowers and twining roses.
NB this image printed in 1948. Mounted on a stunning jet black mount with a slight sheen. |
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