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THE STRANGE GENIUS OF AUBREY BEARDSLEY
frontispiece to
John Davidson's
"Plays;" the Latin
Quarter Pierrot
holding the hour-
glass in Dowson's
pastoral phantasy
is Charles Conder;
Max Beerbohm
and Whistler ap-
pear in the "Bon
Mots" grotesques;
Rejane' s mask was
used by him again
and again.
U NOWING
      fh a b h a d
      . het ,,.,   h e,  Gopyrght V'y John Lane, &sq. : eermssswn 01
Jo0n Lane C.O.
      only a few             REJANE: FROM A DRAWING BY AUBEY BASL.
years of work before him, Beardsley was feverishly, incessantly work-
ing, and produced many hundreds of drawings in rapid succession. He
was socially active, too, however, and loved fine clothes and rare clarets.
He seemed determined to live his short life gaily, and always had
time for his friends, because he worked chiefly at night, by the light
of those long candles which he repeatedly introduced into his fan-
tastic designs. His life, as revealed by his associates and by the
strange, inconsequential letters which have been published, reads,
indeed, like a morbid psychological novel by Arthur Schnitzler. The
coterie of people who visited him in the somber Cambridge Street
studio, furnished in black, and those who surrounded him at Dieppe,
have only the kindest things to say about his engaging, persuasive
personality and charming presence, and maintain that his pose served
merely to hide the deep and fine serious feelings of a shy, earnest man.
   The fact that his work continues to retain its stimulus for a new
artistic generation, is sufficient excuse for this first exhibition in
America. It is fortunate that it could be arranged at a time when
Beardsley has ceased to be a fashionable craze or a topic for frivolous
conversation. He is not an artist whom one can amusingly denounce
or indiscriminately praise, but an acknowledged master of satire
and decorative line, who taught graphic artists many new and im-
portant lessons, and practically exhausted the resources of his medium.
He is an artists' artist, and, as Mr. Pennell wrote, "What more could
he wish ?"
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