Title Page by Aubrey Beardsley - Drawing. Public domain image.

Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898), he leading English illustrator of the 1890s and, after Oscar Wilde, the outstanding figure in the Aestheticism movement. Drawing was a strong interest from early childhood, and Beardsley practiced it while earning his living as a clerk. Beardsley’s meeting with the English artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones in 1891 prompted him to attend evening classes at the Westminster School of Art for a few months, his only professional instruction.