I’d heard about an exhibition involving Aubrey Beardsley via an Art Fund email. This was taking place at the Heath Robinson Museum, which is located in Pinner – a short hop on Jubilee and Metropolitan for me. The museum sits in Pinner Memorial Park which is rather lovely. It is only open Thursday-Sunday, 11am-4pm, so I popped along after dropping off 6YO and did a bit of work from the excellent Daisy’s in the Park café until it opened.
I was pleased to hear of the existence of the Heath Robinson Museum anyway, as I’m aware of him as an illustrator and designer of elaborate machines as a kind of satire on modern life and society. So the small permanent collection was enjoyable, and the “Beardsley Generation” equally impressive.
I’ve long had an interest in Aubrey Beardsley – my Mum has a copy of Salome (do follow that link and read the introduction via the “Look Inside” feature, as the letter from Oscar Wilde to The Times is well worth it) which is a thing of beauty. Also one can’t help but be captivated by the tragedy of his story, given his prodigious talent yet such a young demise.
The exhibition was very informative, but was only partially Aubrey Beardsley – it covered a dozen or so contemporary and collaborative illustrators using the new techniques to achieve their distinctive results. The images below show Aubrey Beardsley’s “Woman in a Kimono Holding a Fan” (from Bon Mots of Charles Lamb and Douglas Jerrold), William Heath Robinson’s illustrations from The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, something quite macabre by Edmund Sullivan and album cover artwork by Charles Robinson (William Heath Robinson’s brother). Note: that album cover is for an album of sheet music, not a vinyl disc – this is the 1890’s we’re talking about, remember.
Timsformational 