Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was born on August 21, 1872, in Sussex, England, the son of Vincent Paul Beardsley (c. 1840-1909), and Ellen Agnus (1846-1932). At the age of seven, Beardsley was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a disease that would plague him for the remainder of his life. In 1888 Beardsley worked as a clerk in London. His artistic aspirations led him to enroll in the Westminster School of Art, beginning in 1891.

Following his artistic training, Beardsley began illustrating for art journals. His intricate drawing style was well captured by the hard surface of metal engraving blocks, which were a recently-introduced printing technology. His work was noticed by J. M. Dent, who asked him to illustrate a new publication of Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Beardsley went on to illustrate several other literary publications including Oscar Wilde's Salome (1894), Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock (1896), Aristophanes' Lysistrata (1896), and Ben Jonson's Volpone (1898). The controversial nature of some of his illustrations, combined with his decadent social life, drew much critical speculation about his own personal lifestyle. In 1897, in the face of his declining physical health and at the urging of his sister, Beardsley converted to Roman Catholicism and subsequently demanded that his friends and family destroy his drawings. His demands were ignored and his work was preserved.

Aubrey Beardsley died of tuberculosis on March 16, 1898, at age twenty-five.

Source:

Crawford, Alan. "Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent (1872-1898)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 2 Nov. 2005.