Aubrey Beardsley

Professor Fred Brown

1892

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Not on display

Artist: Aubrey Beardsley 1872–1898
Medium: Graphite and ink on paper
Dimensions: Support: 254 x 254 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Mrs Helen Thorp 1927
Reference: N04235

Catalogue entry

N04235 PROFESSOR FRED BROWN 1892

Inscr. ‘AVB’ in monogram b.r. and ‘Fred Brown. N.E.A.C.’ t.l.
Pencil and ink, 10×10 (25·5×25·5).
Presented by Mrs Helen Thorp 1927.
Coll: Miss Nellie Syrett; ...; Mrs Helen Thorp.
Lit: Vallance in Ross, 1909, pp.70–1, No.37; Macfall, 1928, p.20.
Repr: Under the Hill, 1904, p.77; Artwork, No.23, 1930, p.155.

Beardsley went to night classes at the Westminster School of Art under Professor Brown for three months in the summer of 1892. For Fred Brown, one of the founder-members of the New English Art Club, see p. 78. The style of the drawing shows the influence of Whistler, whose Peacock Room is imitated in the decoration of the wall. Beardsley acknowledged this influence by incorporating in the design a peacock feather and Whistler's ‘Butterfly’ signature.

Nellie Syrett, given by Lane (in Under the Hill) and Vallance as the owner of this drawing, was the sister of Netta Syrett who contributed to the Keynotes Series of Novels and Short Stories and The Yellow Book, both publications with which Beardsley was connected.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I