Aubrey Beardsley

British artist who illustrated stories and plays with elegant line drawings. A gifted illustrator, his work also appeared in magazines and books and he was a pivotal force in the establishment of Art Nouveau in Britain. Self taught, his work was widely imitated. He worked almost entirely in black and white , producing precise drawings solely for the purpose of mechanical reproduction. Some of his work was called decadent at the time, erotic at a future time. Suffering from tuberculosis, he was too ill to go to church when he was converted into the Catholic faith in March 1897. His final task, the illustrations for a reissue of "Volpone" was left unfinished. Age 25, he spent his final days continuing his drawing, now in pencil as he was propped up in bed, and his reading turned to religious books. His last scrawled letter implored his publisher to please destroy all bad drawings and anything obscene. Beardsley died 3/16/1898, Mentone, France. He became a Catholic convert in March 1897. In November he moved to Menton in France, looking for a kinder climate but he was bedridden from 1/26/1898. Afflicted with minor hemorrhages in the lungs, he had a particularly bad one on 3/06/1898, when his doctors began to administer morphine. He died 3/16/1898, Menton, France. Link to Wikipedia biography