Yesterday marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the death of John Austen. Little-known today, Austen was one of the many English artists inspired by the ground-breaking work of Aubrey Beardsley in the 1890s. Along with contemporaries like Harry Clarke and R.S. Sherriffs, Austen created stylized art possessing a unique beauty and power.

Details on Austen's life are hard to find. I will be quoting from this website:

Dedicating his full energies towards bohemian living and art, Austen quickly became a renowned illustrator. He exhibited with the Royal Society of British Artists, and became an associate, and thereafter a member, in 1921. Things moved quickly for the young gentleman, and in 1919, Austen married Ruby ‘Tommy’ Thomson, who from that point onwards was to serve as his chief inspiration and model. He was employed by the Penny Illustrated Paper around this time too; one of the largest illustrated newspapers in the U.K.
Austen’s early works, including illustrations for R. H. Keen’s The Little Ape (1921), and a fine edition of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1922), were heavily influenced by the work of Aubrey Beardsley. These illustrations resulted from a great admiration for the Japanese style of woodcuts, a dedication to ‘line’ and a thorough appreciation of ‘flowing’ forms. After 1925 however, Austen’s style changed, and he became part of the Art Deco movement. ‘Art Deco’ was enormously influential in the years following the First World War (originating in France), but flourished internationally in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. It was characterised by rich colours, bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation – Austen’s work being no exception. (...)

Austen’s illustration for ‘Bluebeard’ from 1922.

An ever-sociable man, Austen was close personal friends with Alan Odle (a fellow English illustrator and the husband of the novelist Dorothy Richardson), and Harry Clarke (the renowned Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator). The three men exhibited their artworks together, at St. George’s Gallery in 1925 – with Austen’s recent illustrations for Daphnis and Chloe forming a large part of the show. Odle’s wife, Dorothy Richardson, also wrote a book about Austen – entitled John Austen and the Inseparables (published in 1930) – which further propelled the artists into the spotlight. (...)
Following an illness in the early 1930s, Austen returned to Kent, and lived at New Romney, before moving to Petham, and later Wingham. He continued to publish illustrations during this time though, and also taught at the Canterbury and Thanet Schools of Art. Austen died on 27th October 1948, at his home of Rose Cottage, West Hythe. He was sixty-two years old.

Below, I've posted a fair number of Austen's works. Among those are two plates that appear to have come from an edition of The Arabian Nights. However, I can find no information on the matter. Feel free to enjoy them and the rest of the scans in remembrance of a true artist.

An Austen work from 1913 titled “Visions”.

The rest of these plates are from the 1922 edition of Hamlet that Austen illustrated. He did one hundred and twenty-one pieces in all. These are a mere sample.

The piece above really struck me the first time I saw it. Not just for its innate quality, but because I knew that I’d ‘seen’ it before. Almost. It had obviously inspired Stephen Fabian’s cover for The Castle of the Otter, a companion volume to Gene Wolfe’s ‘Book of the New Sun’ tetralogy. I’m not sure that I can point to another time that Fabian ever ‘swiped’ a piece of art, but this one is definitely the case.

Viewing all of these plates together, several of them reminded me strongly of the approach that Mike Kaluta took when he created his Celtic League calendars, which I reviewed last year. It wouldn’t surprise me if MWK had seen Austen’s Hamlet. The man is deeply interested in that entire era of art.