Sex-libris and more

Franz von Bayros (1866-1924) is a fairly recent discovery of mine. He was an Austrian Decadent, and I like to think of him as the spiritual love child of Aubrey Beardsley and the Marquis de Sade. His erotic illustrations caused a furore – the court case concerning his ‘Tales from the Dressing Table’ portfolio made his name in artistic circles, and he was persecuted his whole life for his controversial artwork, meaning that he was constantly moving from country to country. It’s hardly surprising – the morally fixated echelons of nineteenth-century society were hardly going to welcome von Bayros’s decadent take on eroticism, often featuring lesbianism, bestiality and sadomasochism. Nonetheless, his artistic skill cannot be denied, and his illustrations are witty and delightful, attention paid to the minutest of details.