ABSTRACT
The insularity of English art in the 1890s was carefully noted on the Continent. French writers specifically remarked on the way that the nationalistic fervour of the English press increasingly imbued England’s art with the selfsame insulation from foreign influences. The exact goal is rarely reached and the English artist seems like a forced plant which has no spontaneity of growth. In general, as English art became ever more hostile to foreign influences, so the French critics became more protective of their own art traditions. T. J. Garbaty and Jacques Letheve raised many issues, but neither really explored the different ways in which the French and English approached the concept of Aubrey Beardsley’s work within the context of contemporary art-critical debates on avant-gardism. The dearth of secondary source material is most surprising given the fervent critical attention paid, from the 1970s onwards, to the prolific nature of the French press between 1870 and 1914.
