Aubrey Beardsley

  Frontispiece to Chopin's Third Ballade  

(Inspirational piece)

The work by Aubrey Beardsley is based on the Third Ballade which is one of the greatest compositions by the Polish pianist composer Frederic Chopin. The third Ballade was painted in 1895 the medium is ink and wash on paper. The Artist, Aubrey Beardsley, was part of the Art Nouveau  Movement that swept through the decorative arts and architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially this work seems to be just an equestrian painting however the image may be showing the dominance of the woman due to the way she is handling the horse also the expression of her face; she looks determined. Art Nouveau was about abandoning the historical styles of the 19th century and to start movement's towards modernism therefore maybe Beardsley may be abandoning the view of society at the time that women were inferior to men due to the way the woman is handling the horse which shows she is as powerful and can control an animal as well as a man .  

Beardsley seems to have used block colour for this work with different tones of Gray which is very effective on the viewer as it seems ‘dark’ and ‘dangerous’ as by looking at the background it is obvious the woman is in a Wood. The bushes in the background have some texture however the whole image is rather flat and two-dimensional. Beardsleys work will inspire me as I would like to experiment with dramatic changes in tones and block colour.