Aubrey Beardsley quotes

Aubrey Beardsley was an influential English illustrator and author, best known for his distinctive black-and-white Art Nouveau illustrations. His provocative and imaginative style made a lasting impact on the world of art and literature. He remains a key figure of the Aesthetic movement and a symbol of fin-de-siècle decadence. Here are 24 of his quotes:

Advertisement is an absolute necessity of modern life, and if it can be made beautiful as well as obvious, so much the better for the makers of soap and the public who are likely to wash.

Aubrey Beardsley

What is a portrait good for, unless it shows just how the subject was seen by the painter? In the old days before photography came in a sitter had a perfect right to say to the artist: "Paint me just as I am." Now if he wishes absolute fidelity he can go to the photographer and get it.

Aubrey Beardsley

It takes only one man to make an artist, but forty to make an Academician.

Aubrey Beardsley

When an Englishman has professed his belief in the supremacy of Shakespeare amongst all poets, he feels himself excused from the general study of literature. He also feels himself excused from the particular study of Shakespeare.

Aubrey Beardsley

I have always done my sketches, as people would say, for the fun of it... I have worked to amuse myself, and if it has amused the public as well, so much the better for me.

Aubrey Beardsley

How few of our young English impressionists knew the difference between a palette and a picture! However, I believe that Walter Sickert did - sly dog!

Aubrey Beardsley

I think the title page I drew for Salomé was after all "impossible". You see booksellers couldn't stick it up in their windows.

Aubrey Beardsley

No language is rude that can boast polite writers.

Aubrey Beardsley

One's ears are weary of the voice of the art teacher who sits like the parrot on his perch, learning the jargon of the studios, making but poor copy and calling it criticism. We have had enough of their omniscience, their parade of technical knowledge, and their predilection for the wrong end of the stick.

Aubrey Beardsley

Pope has more virulence and less vehemence than any of the great satirists. His character of Sporus is the perfection of satirical writing. The very sound of words scarify before the sense strikes.

Aubrey Beardsley

The only place in London where one can forget that it is Sunday.

Aubrey Beardsley

I'm so affected, that even my lungs are affected.

Aubrey Beardsley

I shall not live much longer than did Keats.

Aubrey Beardsley

The general opinion appears to be that it is very funny to make yourself out as fast or as foolish as possible; though even worse than this is the painful orthodoxy of those individuals who claim Shakespeare for their favourite poet, Beethoven for their favourite composer, and Raphael for their favourite painter.

Aubrey Beardsley

There was a young man with a salary, Who had to do drawings for Malory; When they asked him for more, He replied, 'Why? Sure You've enough as it is for a gallery.'

Aubrey Beardsley

All humanity inspires me. Every passer-by is my unconscious sitter; and as strange as it may seem, I really draw folk as I see them. Surely it is not my fault that they fall into certain lines and angles.

Aubrey Beardsley

If I am not grotesque, I am nothing.

Aubrey Beardsley

I really draw folk as I see them. Surely it is not my fault that they fall into certain lines and angles.

Aubrey Beardsley

The poster first of all justified its existence on the grounds of utility, and should it further aspire to beauty of line and colour, may not our hoardings claim kinship with the galleries, and the designers of affiches pose proudly in the public eye as the masters of Holland Road or Bond Street Barbizon.

Aubrey Beardsley

I see everything in a grotesque way. When I go to the theatre, for example, things shape themselves before my eyes just as a I draw them - the people on the stage, the footlights, the queer faces and garb of the audience in the boxes and stalls. They all seem weird and strange to me. Things have always impressed me in this way.

Aubrey Beardsley

The poster first of all justified its existence on the grounds of utility, and should it further aspire to beauty of line and colour, may not our hoardings claim kinship with the galleries, and the designers of affiches pose proudly in the public eye as the masters of Holland Road or Bond Street Barbizon (and, recollect, no gate money, no catalogue)?

Aubrey Beardsley