A closer look
Nothing caused a 19th-century monocle to pop quite like Aubrey Beardsley’s grotesque, hyper-sexualized pen-and-ink drawings. As the poster boy for the Decadent movement, he specialized in illustrating scandalous literature like Oscar Wilde’s Salome with a stark, Japanese-woodcut-inspired style that practically dripped with sin. He managed to absolutely traumatize the prudish British establishment before dying of tuberculosis at 25, leaving behind a legacy of top-tier edgy aesthetic.
