Aubrey Vincent Beardsley, illustrator and writer, was the most notorious and outstanding artist of the fin de siecle. His disturbing erotic drawings shocked the sensibilities of the Victorians and his friendship and collaboration with Oscar Wilde has secured his place in the pantheon of great artists of the 19th century. Beardsley's most important illustrations were for Wilde's Salome, Pope's The Rape of the Lock, The Lysistrata of Aristophanes and Jonson's Valpone. He was art editor of the hugely influential Yellow Book from which he was dismissed following the arrest of Wilde, becoming thereafter the illustrator of the Savoy magazine. He went on to write The Story of Venus and Tannhauser which was published in an unexpurgated version as Under the Hill.This extraordinary man created some of the most striking and enduring images of the last one hundred years. Read Less