Master Leo

1891

Decides to become an artist

In 1891, on the advice of Edward Burne-Jones and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Beardsley resolved to make art his profession. Burne-Jones introduced him to Oscar Wilde and advised him to study medieval illumination.

1892

Trip to Paris

In 1892 Beardsley travelled to Paris, where he discovered the posters of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the Parisian fashion for Japanese prints.

1892

Westminster School of Art

In 1892 Beardsley attended classes at the Westminster School of Art, then under Professor Fred Brown.

1894

Art editor of The Yellow Book

In 1894 Beardsley, together with the American writer Henry Harland, became art editor of The Yellow Book; for its first four issues he produced the covers and many illustrations.

1894–1896

His health sharply declines

Between 1894 and 1896, at the height of his success, his health sharply deteriorated. “I know my illness is incurable,” he wrote to Raffalovich, “but I am sure measures can be taken to slow its course.”

April 1895

Wilde's arrest costs him The Yellow Book

When Oscar Wilde was arrested in April 1895, a journalist mistakenly wrote that he had taken “the yellow book” to prison rather than simply a yellow-covered book. For Victorian England that was enough: Beardsley lost his place at the magazine and his livelihood.