Leave the kids at home.

His erotic ink drawings, full of nudity and sex, influenced everyone from Klimt to Picasso. But, ahead of a Tate Britain show, we look at the pictures that were deemed just too outrageous. WARNING: explicit content

“He is drawing not persons but personages; he is dramatizing not the relationships between personalities but the pure, geometric essence of relationship.”

David Rimanelli on the art of Aubrey Beardsley

Scan from "Aubrey Beardsley Imp of the Perverse", 1976, Stanley Weintraub. The Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 0-271-01216-1 pbk.

'The Battle of the Beaux and the Belles' illustration by Aubrey Beardsley for Alexander Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock' published by Leonard Smithers, 1896

Drowning // Inktober 06 Ophelia’s Death Style inspired by the artists Harry Clarke and Aubrey Beardsley. //I want to illustrate classic novels lately… Btw it’s still not finished but my hand hurts so...

'Siegfried', illustration by Aubrey Beardsley for 'The Studio Vol 1' April 1893.

Here at MessyNessyChic, we love digging up long lost illustrations of the past to inject some creativity into our day. From the forgotten artwork found in lost Art Nouveau and Art Deco magazines to the drawing boards of the Ballets Russes; Heath Robinson's peculiar art of over-complicating things to

Paul Christadoulou and Aubrey Beardsley, Elliott Alice Boots advertisement, detail (1966)