Friday, August 21, 2009

Birth of Aubrey Beardsley

English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley was born on August 21, 1872. I don't know much about him, but I know his illustrations of the works of Poe are brilliant. These black and white images uniquely capture Poe's vision: strangely dark, yet slightly exotic, each is simple, yet hauntingly beautiful. The examples below date to 1901, so far as I can tell.

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
"The Black Cat"
"The Masque of the Red Death"

2 comments:

Gina said...

They make me think of Charles Addams and Edward Gorey. (Not that I'm an expert on either, but still, they seem reminiscent to my untrained eye.)

Rob Velella said...

I agree with you - and my eyes are probably just as untrained as yours!