Under the Hill 1

Under the Hill 1

Under the Hill

and Other essays in Prose and Verse

 

Author: Aubrey Beardsley

 

 

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

 

 

To those who are acquainted with Aubrey Beardsley's essays into

the domain of literature no apology for this re-publication is

needed--indeed Beardsley's most intimate friends have averred that

if his master genius had been turned seriously towards the world of

letters, his success would have been as undoubted there as it was in

the world of art.

 

Admirers frequently have expressed a wish to see the literary remains

of Beardsley. This volume, in which are gathered together various

fragments and personalia, will, I trust, meet the case.

 

A few of my random recollections of Beardsley's association with "The

Yellow Book" perhaps will not be amiss.

 

Until the publication of the first volume of "The Yellow Book" in

1894, Beardsley was practically unknown, his drawings for "Le Morte

D'Arthur" and his marvellous designs illustrating "Salomé" constituting

his artistic record. It was at this time, then, that one morning he,

with Mr. Henry Harland and myself, during half an hour's chat over our

cigarettes at the Hogarth Club, founded the much discussed "Yellow

Book." Beardsley became Art Editor, whilst Mr. Harland accepted the

post of Literary Editor.

 

Many will remember the sensation caused by the appearance of the first

volume. Perhaps the _Westminster Gazette_ and the _Times_ were the most

severe in their strictures, at any rate on the Art in general and on

Beardsley in particular.

 

The _Westminster Gazette_ said:

 

"Mr. Aubrey Beardsley achieves excesses hitherto undreamt

of. He seems to have conceived the disagreeable idea of

taking certain arrangements of lines invented by the

Japanese, and specially suited to blithe and pleasant

peaks of decoration, and applying them to the most morbid

of grotesque. His offence is the less to be condoned

because he has undoubted skill as a line draughtsman and

has shown himself capable of refined and delicate work.

But as regards certain of his inventions in this number,

the thing called 'The Sentimental Education,' and that

other thing to which the name of Mrs. Patrick Campbell

has somehow become attached, we do not know that anything

would meet the case except a short Act of Parliament to

make this kind of thing illegal."

 

The _Times_ said:

 

"'The Yellow Book' is, we suppose, destined to be the

organ of the New Literature and the New Art. If the New

Art is represented by the cover of this wonderful volume,

it is scarcely calculated to attract by its intrinsic

beauty or merit; possibly, however, it may be intended

to attract by its very repulsiveness and insolence, and

in that case it is not unlikely to be successful. Its

note appears to be a combination of English rowdyism

with French lubricity.... Sir Frederick Leighton, who

contributes two graceful studies, finds himself cheek

by jowl with such advanced and riotous representatives

of the New Art as Mr. Aubrey Beardsley and Mr. Walter

Sickert. On the whole the New Art and the New Literature

appear to us to compare in this singular volume far from

favourably with the old."

 

It may interest the _Times_ critic to know that Sir Frederick Leighton

was a great admirer of Beardsley's work. At one of Sir Frederick's

periodical visits to the Bodley Head to see how the New Art and the New

Literature were developing, he playfully suggested that if he was not

"performing an R.A. duty he was doing a neighbourly one." He asked to

see the originals of Beardsley's "Yellow Book" pictures (Vol. I.), and

then remarked: "Ah! what wonderful line! What a great artist!" and then

_sotto voce,_ "if he could only draw." My retort was, "Sir Frederick,

I am tired of seeing men who can _only_ draw." "Oh! yes," said Sir

Frederick, "I know what you mean, and you are quite right too."

 

There was indeed a universal howl against the cover and title-page

designs, which it will be remembered were both the work of Beardsley.

However the conductors of "The Yellow Book" were nothing daunted

and proceeded to announce that for each volume in the future Mr.

Beardsley would complete new cover and title-page designs. This was an

entirely fresh idea, and has since been adopted by most of the leading

illustrated magazines both in England and America.

 

An interesting and original contribution to Volume II. of "The Yellow

Book," one which did not fulfil its object however, was a criticism of

the contents of Volume I. by the late P. G. Hammerton. Mr. Hammerton,

being merely an art critic and not a humorist, did not fulfil the

commission quite in the spirit in which it was given him; the

conductors of the quarterly desired criticism, even though adverse to

themselves. I am sure that nothing would have delighted the two editors

more than a good slating in their own pages, but Mr. Hammerton, always

conscientious, found nothing but praise for its contents, especially

for Beardsley's work.

 

Beardsley's defect as Art Editor was youth. He would not take himself

seriously: as an editor and draughtsman he was almost a practical

joker, for one had, so to speak, to place his drawings under a

microscope, and look at them upside down. This tendency on the eve of

the production of Vol. V., during my first visit to the United States,

rendered it necessary to omit his work from that volume.

 

Beardsley was responsible for the art of the first four volumes, and it

must be frankly confessed that, when he severed his connection with the

magazine, the quarterly suffered an irretrievable loss.

 

Soon after this period, Mr. Arthur Symonds started "The Savoy," as a

rival, to which Beardsley, again as Art Editor, contributed another

fine series of drawings.

 

I well remember being interviewed in New York regarding the alleged

decadence in Beardsley's work. I said then, and repeat now, that he

merely lashed the follies of his time, that he was the Hogarth of his

day, and that he had no more sympathy with decadence than Hogarth had

for the vices depicted in "The Rake's Progress" and "Marriage à la

Mode." Knowledge must never be confounded with sympathy. I will go

farther, and declare that Beardsley, by his grotesque and powerful

pictures of several hideous phases or life, dealt a death blow to

decadence. Had he lived till now, it is quite possible that the Royal

Academy might have justified its existence by recognising in him the

greatest exponent of the most vital of the graphic arts--namely,

Black and White. In support of this theory it may be well to point

out that Mr. Harland is now the delight or millions by his charming

love romances, and that "Max" in his brilliant weekly articles in the

_Saturday Review_ pleads eloquently for an intelligent drama.

 

It was not often that Beardsley took up his pen to write to the

newspapers, preferring to allow the hostile and adverse criticism

with which he was continually assailed to confute themselves. On two

occasions, however, he did so, and the letters he wrote will be round

included in this volume. The first, I think, with the accompanying

illustration, explains itself. The second was the outcome of the

following criticism by the _DAILY Chronicle._ March I, 1894, on the

frontispiece of Mr. John Davidson's "Plays".

 

"AN ERROR OF TASTE"

 

"Mr. Beardsley has contributed a frontispiece à propos of 'Scaramouch

in Naxos' in which one or two well-known faces of the day are to be

recognised--an error or taste which is to be regretted."

 

The subjects of Beardsley's two portraits were Mr. Wilde and Sir

Augustus Harris; the latter Beardsley considered his debtor by virtue

of his having taken half a crown at Covent Garden Theatre without

providing him with a seat.

 

Aubrey Beardsley was born on August 21, 1872, and died on March 16,

1898. During his short life he carried the art of Black and White

further than any man since Albert Dürer. On his death prophetic

assurances were not wanting that the "Beardsley cult" or "craze," as it

was generally called, was doomed to extinction with the death of its

high priest, but so far from this anticipation being realised, his work

now enjoys a greater appreciation and more intelligent sympathy than

was granted to it, save by an esoteric few, during his lifetime.

 

Although it is impossible, with any degree of accuracy, to state to

what extent Beardsley's popularity has increased during the last few

years, evidence is not wanting to show that his following is both

enthusiastic and loyal. This applies not only to Great Britain, but

equally to America, whilst in Germany, France, Belgium, Russia and

Holland, it is safe to affirm that his reputation is steadily growing,

especially in Germany. Indeed, it is obvious to the most superficial

observer that there is hardly a Black and White artist working to-day

who has not in some subtle way been influenced by the master.

 

More than three-fourths of Beardsley's work passed through my hands,

and to my knowledge he never used Chinese White. I am the fortunate

possessor of the originals of over eighty of his principal drawings.

I get applications from would-be purchasers of these from different

parts of the world almost daily, but as yet I have withstood all

temptations to part with these treasures, which I regard as the chief

monument of the greatest, most brilliant, the wittiest, and the most

lovable man it has ever been my privilege to know.