The San Francisco Examiner - Sunday, April 21, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
WHICH ONE HAS THE LAUGH?
Does Beardsley Fool the Brit-
isher or Does the Britisher
Fool Beardsley?
Oscar Wilde Has Left a Vacant Ped-
estal - Will the New Artist
Occupy It?
IS IT INSANITY OR ART?
One of Those Things That No
Fellow Can
Understand, So, of Course, Every-
body Buys.
LONDON, April 10. - The downfall of Oscar Wilde may bring disaster to many who have not deserved it. It will be more sad than strange if it harms one who was, to some extent, his protégé - Aubrey Beardsley.
Probably no young artist who does not aim at humor has been so heartily and universally provocative of mirth as Beardsley; probably no man but Oscar Wilde (whose name is not a pleasant one to mention) has been so generously damned by people who pride themselves on having sense. But while the public has laughed, Beardsley has had a smile himself, not the less merry because it was in his sleeve. The joke was this: they dammed and they ridiculed him, but they bought his pictures.