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Aubrey Beardsley's “Japanese” Grotesques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Linda Gertner Zatlin
Linda Gertner Zatlin
Affiliation:
Morehouse College
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Extract

Aubrey Beardsley made major contributions to the art of the grotesque. Initially, he probably learned the theory as well as the technique of creating designs in this mode from the work of medieval European artists. His own development of the grotesque, however, rests on his treatment of subject matter, a treatment which was influenced by Japanese woodblock artists. The double viewpoint, both expressing an author's point of view and critiquing one's own society, is seen most frequently in humorous grotesque Japanese woodblock designs, which were collected, exhibited, and reproduced in England during the 1890s. In order to detail one of Beardsley's major contributions to this form, this essay will first delineate Beardsley's attraction to the grotesque as well as his exposure to Japanese art, and, after examining the ways in which the grotesque works, it will concentrate on Beardsley's adaptations of the Japanese grotesque.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , Spring 1997 , pp. 87 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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